


Band of Benders: Book 1

by PelesFire22



Series: Band of Benders (Fanfiction) [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Band of Brothers (TV 2001), The Pacific (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Avatar & Benders Setting, Elemental Benders, F/M, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:07:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 28,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28139664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PelesFire22/pseuds/PelesFire22
Summary: It's been 25 years since the death of the last Avatar. Just when the world thinks that it has finally found balance, there is always another who finds a way to throw it off. Out of the Earth Kingdom, the new Avatar emerges, an earthbender who is tasked with bringing balance back to the world. The four nations unite to stop a common threat from destroying their home under the leadership of the new Avatar, but it will take much more than unity to stop the foe that stands in their way.
Relationships: A hell of alot more Female OC pairings to come, Bill "Hoosier" Smith/Original Female Character(s), Bill Guarnere/Frances Peca Guarnere, Charles "Chuck" Tatum/Original Female Character(s), John Basilone/Lena Riggi Basilone, Joseph Liebgott/Original Female Character(s), Lewis Nixon/Original Female Character(s), Mary Houston/Sidney "Sid" Phillips, Richard Winters/Original Female Character(s), Stella Karamanlis/Robert Leckie, Vera Keller/Robert Leckie
Series: Band of Benders (Fanfiction) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2061477
Kudos: 5





	1. Night Terrors

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: This fanfiction is solely, for all intents and purposes, created for entertainment’s sake. The following characters are solely based off of the HBO series and are in no way intended to disrespect the real life heroes. Reader Discretion is advised  
> Sidenote: Many OC pairings will be involved in the making of this fanfiction, some events and locations will be cannon to both fandoms but others will be different

**Tai Sai Village, somewhere outside Wulong Forest**   
**Earth Kingdom**

The tiny house belonging to the Winters family was deathly quiet along with the rest of the village. There were no signs of light at all in the house or any of the other houses, everyone having turned in for the night from the day’s work. The Winters family wasn’t wealthy, not by any means, living in the house that had been in the family for generations, raising their two children, a son and a daughter off the meager wages they earned from the farm.

  
Richard, the oldest and only son, lay awake on the small trundle bed on the other side of the room he shared with his little sister. Nothing he did would put him back to sleep, not reading, not counting the stars outside his window. Hell, listening to the crickets outside wasn’t doing the trick either. Ann, on the other hand, was sleeping perfectly fine. Dick was slightly jealous. Here he was at twenty five, already acting like an insomniac and yet here was his thirteen year old sister in such a deep sleep that it would have taken a whole pack of badgermoles to wake her up.  
Dick sighed wistfully and slipped out of bed, heading out onto the balcony and into the warm night in his bare feet. The moon above was huge with the black veil of the sky above dotted and flecked with the dusting of silver stars. A bit of a ways down off the face of the great hill, the ocean lapped against the shore while the breeze rustled the grass and the leaves of the trees. Why? Why the hell couldn’t he sleep? Maybe it was the heat. Earth Kingdom summers could be just as hot as the weather in the Fire Nation……but maybe it was something else, something entirely different.  
Dick retreated back into the house when he noticed the lights were on in the downstairs kitchen. Odd…..Mom and Dad should have been in bed by now. He slipped his sandals onto his feet along with his green-grey haori and crept out into the hallway. The voices downstairs were like the crickets, ceaseless and quiet as he heard his mother and father chattering away with someone he had never heard before. Quietly, he settled himself at the top of the stairs that led to the kitchen and listened.

“We have investigated several claims, both here and in other parts of the Earth Kingdom,” a man’s voice said. “All of which have turned out to be false.”

“I thought your ways were never wrong?” Dick’s father questioned. “I thought that when you determined…….”

“No way is ever perfect I’m afraid,” the man said. “However, we do believe that because our way has led us here, there might be some validity.”

“Who do you believe it might be?” Mrs. Winters questioned.

“It is hard to say,” the man said. “Have you noticed anything unusual about either of your two children?”

Dick didn’t hear either of his parents speak for a brief moment. “Nothing too out of the ordinary,” his father finally said. “Our daughter is an Earthbender and so is our son.”

“Are you sure?” the man asked.

“Well,” Mrs. Winters said. “There was…..one, maybe two instances.”

“Go on.”

“When Dick was seven,” Mrs. Winters said. “I watched him playing in the field one day. We knew he could bend earth but…..”

“But what?” the man pressed.

“I saw a dust cloud around him,” she said. “And the breeze, it was almost like it was following his command.”

Dick felt a pang of fear wash right over him. He never remembered being able to do that, not even as a child! _It’s probably a false memory_ …..he thought. It was so long ago Mom probably wouldn’t have even remembered either…..

“Your son still lives with you, yes?”

“Yes sir.”

“Bring him down here,” the man said. “I’d like to speak with him personally.”

Dick hastily slipped back to his bedroom and rushed under the covers, pretending to be asleep until he heard the door creak open. “Richard?” his father said. “Richard will you come downstairs please?”

Dick, no longer pretending to be asleep, swung himself out of bed and followed his father downstairs to the kitchen. A tall and imposing figure in a deep blue and silver cloak stood near his mother, his face hardened and deeply lined with age while much of his brown hair had greyed. Dick was uneasy around him. One little slip up and the man would probably throw him off a cliff if given the chance.

“This is your son?” the man asked.

“Yes sir,” Mr. Winters replied.

“And you must be Richard,” the man said to Dick. “My name is Robert Sink.”

Dick politely bowed his head. “An honor to meet you sir.”

The man looked Dick over with his hard, narrow eyes, observing every feature from his ruddy red hair to his green eyes set within his narrow face. “Without a doubt,” Sink said to Mr. Winters. “There is no doubt in my mind that he is ‘the one’.”

“Sir?” Dick asked. “I’m not sure I understand.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to,” Sink replied. “After all, these things aren’t easy to understand in the first place. It’s been at least twenty five years since the death of the previous Avatar.”

The Avatar?! That’s what all this was about? _He’s got to be out of his mind_ …..Dick thought. The man’s got to be off his rocker if he thinks I’m the Avatar….

“The…..previous Avatar?”

“Yes,” Sink replied. “The previous one was from one of the water tribes….north or south, I wouldn’t remember. The sages told us that the next was to be born here in the Earth Kingdom. And that led us right here to you.”

Dick swallowed the nervous lump in his throat. “You think I’m……I’m the Avatar?” he stammered.

“Who else could it have been?” Sink asked him. “Your mother told me how she saw you both earth and airbend as a child. No one other than the Avatar could do it.”

So it hadn’t been a false memory after all. Dick had known of the previous Avatars and what they were capable of, deeds great, powerful and notable. Many of them had been born to noble families and had risen to positions of power within their nations. What made him so special then? The son of Earth Kingdom farmers who toiled the land every day for a few copper pennies didn’t get very far in life. Dick hadn’t expected to get very far in life either. Not with those meager beginnings.

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “No, I’m sorry sir but you’ve got the wrong person.”

“Richard.”

“Sir please,” Dick replied. “I understand that your search might have led you here for one reason or another. But I assure you that I’m not the one you’re looking for.”

Sink was doubtful of Dick’s claim. He could see that he was afraid, maybe even a little doubtful himself. But deep down he was sure that Dick was the one.

“Give it time,” he said. “I’m sure that you’ll understand soon.”

There were hardly a few seconds between when Dick suddenly felt a faint shudder beneath his feet. Something was wrong. These parts of the Earth Kingdom weren’t susceptible to earthquakes.

“Son?” Mr. Winters asked. “Are you alright?”

“Something’s wrong,” Dick answered.

He bolted past his mother, father and Sink, hurrying out into the night with the other three following in his wake. At first they saw nothing in that velvet black sky, illuminated by the moon and the dusting of the stars. Something streaked across the sky, shining brightly and glowing with a radiant orange light as it flew over the sea, falling…..falling……falling through the air towards Tai Sai.

“What is that?” Mrs. Winters questioned.

Dick’s eyes went wide when he saw the thing fall, its tail leaving a long trail of billowing black smoke behind it as it hurled to wards the ground. He felt it again in his feet, that faint ringing shudder and a quiet *BOOM* that did little to shatter the peaceful air of the night. But then there came another……and another……and another…..

“Richard,” Mr. Winters said suddenly. “Go and get Ann out of bed…..go!”

“Dad?”

“GO!”

Dick hurried back to the house to try and wake Ann up. Terror struck him when the air was suddenly full of screams and shouts, the whole village waking at the sound of something huge whistling through the air and striking the ground. The old house shook as Dick hurried up the stairs, gripping the rails as he tried to keep his balance.

“Ann!” he shouted. “Annie! Annie Get up!”

Ann rushed out of their room, her rust red braid hanging loose over her shoulder and her green eyes wide with terror. “Dick, what’s happening?!” she panicked. “Where are Mom and Dad?”

“Come on, we’ve got to go,” he told her.

Gripping his little sister’s hand, Dick rushed her out of the house. A huge fireball burst in the middle of the field and shot up into the sky in a burst of blinding red and orange. The radiant heat lashed their arms and faces as Ann and Dick tried to find their parents…..but there was no sign of them. All around was chaos…..pure and utter chaos and destruction. Buildings were burning like brightly lit torches, the smell of acrid smoke choking the air while terrified villages dumped bucket after bucket of water on the blazes, but the bombardment just kept coming.

“Annie,” Dick said to his little sister. “Go find the neighbors and get the hell out of here. They’ll know where Mom and Dad are.”

“No!” Ann told him. “I’m not leaving until we find Mom and Dad.”

“You need to go and you need to go, **now**!”

“No!”

“Annie go, now!”

Tears began welling up in her eyes, but Ann’s gaze was suddenly torn away from her brother as something whistled through the air. Dick gasped at the sight of a huge fireball hurtling towards them with the heat bearing right down on top of their heads.

Quick as a flash and without thinking, he threw a hard earth shield over him and Ann, the rock and hard dirt cocooning the two of them in a safe, dark pocket as the fireball exploded two feet in front of them. Dick anchored his feet to the earth as the ground above and below him and his sister rattled and shook them both senseless. The rattling impact of the fireball reverberated against his palms that pressed against the rock and into his bent wrists. For a split second, Dick heard nothing except the ringing in his ears.

“Annie,” he said. “For the last time…..go.”

“But what about you?” she asked.

“I’ll be fine,” Dick answered. “I can take care of myself. Go and don’t stop until you find the neighbors. I’ll be fine, I swear.”

“Promise me?” she asked.

Dick nodded.

With hot tears beginning to sting her eyes, Ann stamped the ground with the flat of her foot and a wide hole opened up in the ground. She gave her big brother a quick hug before jumping in feet first, the hole closing after her and swallowing her right up. Dick felt her soft footfalls hurrying along the floor of the underground tunnel and when he could sense them no longer, he knew that she was well out of danger.

With all the force he could muster, Dick punched the rock shield with his closed fists, the rocks chinking and clattering as they broke and shattered into pieces like broken glass. He kicked up huge pillars of rock out of the ground before the fireballs could make contact with the ground below, the concussive *BOOM!* of the blasts echoing all around him in a symphony of chaos. Every move he made, every step he took would have to count if Dick wanted to save the people who meant everything to him.

**Sinaaq Peninsula, South Pole**

The air was growing colder as Joe Liebgott paddled his way through the chunks of fallen ice from the canyon walls, pushing them out of the way with his kayak paddle. His cheeks had been whipped bright red, his lips chapped from the cold and the skin on his hands beginning to crack. Summer in the South Pole was over and the hardscrabble days of winter not far around the corner. Though the people were used to it, it was still a hard existence living off salted fish and grain bread nearly every day.

 _Maybe I should just go join the Foggy Swamp folks in the Earth Kingdom_ ……he thought as the cold air filled his lungs and left in a white puff through his nostrils. _It’d be a hell of a lot easier to grow our own food….._  
He kept paddling his way between the two monstrous walls of ice, relieved to finally be done with the day’s chores but dismayed that it had taken him all day to haul in the fish. The sun was already beginning to set and soon he would have to turn back. _Another day wasted…..great…..just fucking great….and I’ve got to do it all again tomorrow….._

His brooding was abruptly interrupted when he suddenly felt something cold and wet splashing against the back of his head, trickling down the bare skin of his neck and waking the goosebumps that pricked his skin.

"What the…..? Who the fuck did that?!” he called out.

The laughs gave away the culprits. Curly haired Robert Leckie, shit faced Hoosier Smith, ginger haired Chuck Tatum and pretty boy Andrew Haldane, all wearing the same blue pants, dark blue and silver jackets lined with polar bear dog fur and brown fur lined boots that Liebgott wore. They laughed and snickered at Liebgott’s misfortune, high fiving each other at having caught him by surprise, elated with such a prank go unnoticed by their unsuspecting victim.

“Oh am I gonna let you little shitheads HAVE IT!!”

Liebgott stirred up a wave of icy water with the kayak paddle, the boat rising up on the crest of the water until it was set right down onto the white ice shelf. He sprang from the boat and stirred up another wave with the paddle, the shiny liquid blob of freezing fluid gathering at his command before he brought it right down on their heads. Their laughing quickly turned to gasps of shock as the cold water soaked them and ran through the threads of their clothes.

“Who’s laughing now?” Lieb said with a smirk.

“Oh come on Lieb it was just a prank,” Tatum insisted. “I swear to God it was all Leckie’s idea……”

“Way to throw me under the bus Tatum,” Leckie retorted.

“Hoosier had his hand in it too.”

“I did not!”

“You did too!”

“Oh blow it out your ass will you?!”

Their bickering was once again interrupted once again by the familiar shock of cold water, the three of them letting out a loud yelp that echoed off the ice walls. “Goddamnit Lieb!” Leckie exclaimed. “Once is enough, we get it!”

“That was NOT Lieb this time,” Haldane corrected. “And if the three of you would shut up for two seconds then maybe you would have seen that.”

Leckie rolled his eyes and shook out his wet hair, warming his hands with his foggy breath. “At least the waterbending skills haven’t rusted,” he remarked.

“Yeah like the bayonet in my boot,” Liebgott chuckled.

“Rusty bayonet Liebgott?” Haldane asked him. “You must wanna do some serious damage then.”

“Yes sir,” Liebgott replied, quickly drawing the bayonet from the sheath in his boot and twirling it in his hand.

“Well,” Haldane said. “Guess it’s better to have it than not need it I guess. Just do us all the favor and clean it up.”

“What if I don’t want to?” Liebgott retorted.

“Then I’ll make you do it.”

Liebgott rolled his eyes and slipped his bayonet back into the boot sheath. “Are we still on for practice tomorrow morning?” he asked.

“As far as I know yes,” Haldane replied. “Dad’s still trying to make arrangements for our trip to the North Pole and might need me to help. After that we’ll be set.”

“Perfect,” Liebgott said. “Unless…..”

“Unless what?”

“Maybe we can squeeze a quick session in before the sun sets?”

Now there’s a bright idea….Haldane thought. “I don’t see why not.”

A sly grin crawled its way across Lieb’s face. “Alright,” he said. “Show me what you’ve got.”

Haldane, Tatum, Leckie and Hoosier couldn’t resist the thought of being able to fit one last shred of fun in before the day was up. The next few days were sure to be hell, getting everything together to head up north to the Northern Tribe with Andy’s father. So why not have a bit of fun while they could? It wouldn’t hurt anyone.

With the kayak paddle in hand Liebgott moved to one end of the huge ice shelf while the others fell in a straight line in front of him. When they began to bend they summoned the water in a great surge, the four of them moving as if they were one person, moving their hands and arms in sweeping circles and arcs as the water followed their command and moved with them as though they had become one with their element. Liebgott used the paddle to his advantage, swinging the water out of the way and moving his body with the momentum. The paddle whiffled through the cold air as it spun like a grandmaster’s staff, the water hitting the flat ends and bursting with a splash and sending the cold drops falling into the pure, white snow.

He ducked as a surge of glassy water flew over his head and zipped back towards him, before Liebgott pivoted on his lightning fast feet and hit the silvery, shapeless blob. The cold water splashed against his face making him shiver as the four kept pulling on all the power they could muster to manipulate the water to their will. Leckie held his hands flat and raised a wall of water before sending it straight for Liebgott. He jumped four feet off the ground, his knees tucking into his chest and landing on dry ground. With a deft stroke of his paddle, Liebgott quickly grabbed at the water energy, sweet, deep and blue, smelling of crisp winter air, before sending it straight for the other four waterbenders.

“Oh shit!!” Leckie blurted out. “Run for it boys!!”

Leckie, Tatum, Haldane and Hoosier took off running and laughing as the water rushed behind them while Liebgott rode high atop the crest of the foaming wave, wielding the kayak paddle with one hand and controlling the water with the other. The boys screamed and laughed with joy like children running free in a schoolyard with Liebgott giving chase behind them. He too laughed like a little kid playing a game of tag as the joy of being able to bend freely with no eyes watching, banished every care he and the others may have had. Once he had cornered the four of them at a dead end, Liebgott waved his free hand and the wave crashed to the ground, the water roaring like the breath of a great sea beast as he surfed down the crest and skidded to a halt.

“Holy shit,” Leckie said as he tried to catch his breath. “You win.”

“That’s what I thought,” Liebgott chuckled. “You four can either pay up now or wait until we get home.”

“Not a bad way to settle the score,” Leckie said. “What do you think Tatum? Tatum?”

There was no answer. When Leckie turned around, Chuck just stood there, staring up at the burning sunset as though he were in a trance. Leckie scrunched his eyebrows together, bemused as to what Chuck was staring at. But there was nothing in the sky……not a damn thing save for the snowflakes that fell from overhead.

“Tatum?” he asked. “Tate, you ok?”

Chuck still didn’t answer him. His sapphire blue eyes followed the snowflakes as they fell from the fiery red-orange sky and into his hand. There was something off about them. They were bigger than usual, a sign that it wouldn’t let up until well into tomorrow, but that wasn’t it. It wasn’t until Leckie, Tatum and the others looked closer at the snowflakes that fell against the pink skin of Chuck’s palm that they saw what was wrong with the snowflakes.

They were black.

“Oh no,” Chuck said with a slight tremble of fear, his stomach kicking and turning with a sickening fear.

“What?” Liebgott questioned. “What is it?”

“Black snow,” Chuck replied fearfully. “Lieb?”

“Come on, we need to get home,” Liebgott urged.

Without a second thought, the four boys jumped onto the dark blue surface of the water, surfing their way home as fast as they could with their lightning fast feet carrying them across the water towards home. Fear clouded their minds and the thought of what they would find back in the village consumed them. _God please don’t let this be what I think it is_ ……Liebgott prayed. _I’m begging you, with every last part of me, please don’t let this be a raid….._

The thought kept turning over in his mind as they stirred the waves and kept going until at last they reached the walled village, a riffraff collection of igloos and tents surrounded by a formidable ice and snow wall. Their jaws dropped when the waves set them down on dry land. Screams reached their ears along with war yells as black snow fell around them. Explosions filled the air as the walls and buildings were bombarded by huge, fiery boulders that exploded and burst, sending snow, ice and debris high into the air.

Their eyes went wide with fear, a crippling pounding beating against their chests and panic flooding their minds. “Come on!” Liebgott ordered.  
The five boys took off for the village, pushing their way past warriors in their blues and wolf helmets, ready to do battle with anyone who dared try and invade their domain. Liebgott lost sight of the others as he shoved his way through the hoard of warriors, flooded with urgency and desperate to find a familiar face. At last, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted someone.

“Dad!” he called out. “Dad!”

“Joey!” the elder Liebgott called out to his son.

Joe rushed to his father, already armed to the teeth and terrifying to look at with his wolf’s head helmet perched on top of his head. “Dad, where’s mom?” Joe asked.

“She’s in the house,” his father replied. “You need to go and you need to go now. Go somewhere safe and wait for us.”

“Dad no,” Joe replied. “I’m not leaving any of you!”

“Joe go,” his father ordered. “If anything happens, you get the others and you find a way out of here. Understood?”

Goddamnit! Why wouldn’t he listen? Typical traits of a Liebgott…..stubborn as hell and never one to take orders. Lieb hurried off to go and find his mother, reluctant to act on the orders of his father. The snow crunched beneath his feet as he ran, dodging falling debris and hurrying past women and children who fled in a panic. Smoke and fire choked the air, the intense heat lashing at his back as Liebgott kept running through the maze of paths in the village to the igloo near the northeast corner of the wall.

“Mom!” he called out, the chaos swallowing up his words. “Mom! Mom where are you!”

He whipped open the door that kept the cold out of the igloo but found the house was empty. “Mom?” he called into the stillness. “Mom are you here?”

No answer.

 _Oh God……_ he panicked. _Oh God where is she? She’s gotta be here….._

He looked all around the house but didn’t see any signs of her. Liebgott’s heart sunk into the dark pit of his stomach. It wasn’t like his own mother and siblings to disappear like this. He was sure that at any minute she would turn up somewhere…..but there was no sign of her.

“Lieb!!”

Liebgott hardly heard the faint sound of Chuck calling his name, jumping out of his skin the minute he heard the eerie yell. “Lieb!!”

Liebgott rushed out into the cold, the chaos reaching fever pitch as buildings burned and the village continued to be bombarded by an unseen army. He saw Chuck running towards him with Leckie and Hoosier hot at his heels, his face beaten red by the cold winds and fat snowflakes burrowed in his red hair. “Tatum what the hell happened?!” he questioned.

Poor Chuck looked like he was going to be sick. He clamped a hand over his mouth, stifling a cry as he held out his other hand. When his fingers uncurled, Liebgott almost screamed. In the palm of his hand were the betrothal necklaces belonging to their mothers and Chuck’s grandmother.

“Where are they?!” Liebgott pressed. “Chuck where the hell are they?!”

“I don’t know,” he choked. “I went to go find them and……and there was a strange looking guy in our house. Gran-Gran told me to go and find your dad and…..”

“Come on!” Liebgott urged, grabbing Chuck by the shoulder and ordering everyone to run.

The fight at the gates had reached a frightening apex, the tribesmen and women fending off the soldiers with whatever weapons they could get their hands on. Lieb’s father fought like an animal, taking down one raider after another before jumping back into the violent fray and killing another.

“Dad!” Joe called out. “Dad! Chuck’s Gran-Gran and our moms are in trouble! There’s someone in the house!”

“Oh God no,” Lieb’s father muttered. “Sesi!!!”

His father took off running and left them behind. The boys jumped into the fight, picking up the weapons of downed enemy soldiers and rushing to help keep the gates secure. _God help us_ …..Liebgott prayed. _God help us all!!_

**Ember Island, Fire Nation**

The volleyball game was in full swing, the boys spiking the ball back and forth while flames shot from their toes as they kicked it in the air, the bright orange and yellow fire fanning out like brightly colored banners. The joyous yells, hollers and cheers that came from the boys were infectious as they kept spiking the ball back and forth, not caring one way or another if they were disruptive or too rowdy. The academy had let out for summer break…….and a hell of a break they would make it.

“Come on JP!” Basilone called out. “Send that thing over this way.”

JP Morgan spiked the ball his way and John leapt into the air, his feet flying as he spun; unleashing a fan of flames from his toes before he sent the ball hurling over the net. Of all the students at the firebending academy, John had proved his worth quickly. Hard-headed, headstrong and assertive at twenty six, he taught even the youngest kids in the lower grades how to firebend and how to do it well……and he was strong…..shockingly strong when it came to his bending abilities. The only one who could outmatch him? Ronald Spiers who was already top of the class.

The game kept up with the boys using their bending abilities to their best advantage. The night on the black sand beaches of Ember Island was hot, made hotter still by the boys flinging flags of fire back and forth during the game. They were tanned and sunburned from having spent the entire day on the beach, swimming or keeping up with their bending abilities to prevent Coach Puller from chewing them out during lessons in the yard.

The ball flew straight for John, but the second his eyes caught sight of it, he quickly conjured a ball of fire around his fist and sent the ball rocketing over the heads of the others and right into the sand where it landed in a black, powdery crater.

“Ah shit,” JP swore. “Looks like we’re gonna need a new ball.”

“Hey at least Coach will be happy that we practiced,” Johnny Martin remarked. “Better than having him chew us out for not.”

“Guess this means the game’s over,” John chuckled.

“Not quite,” Someone announced.

The crowd of boys parted to reveal the owner, Ronald Spiers. Tall and imposing with pitch black hair and eyes so brown they may as well have been jet black from a distance, he was not someone anybody in or outside of the firebending academy wanted to mess with. Like John, he too was shockingly strong with his firebending abilities and had a serious reputation among his peers. Rumors often spread throughout the academy that Spiers had conjured lightning and directed it at a group of students who had poked fun at him. Ever since then, students always made sure to give him enough room in the halls whenever he passed them by.

“I think most of you have forgotten that at the end of every game,” Spiers announced. “The wildcard round begins. Whoever wins the wildcard round will win a pass to go into town and raise hell. The loser, unfortunately, buys lunch for the winner for two weeks.”

Spiers tossed him the ball and John quickly caught it before it could make contact with his face. “So,” Spiers said. “We got a deal?”

“Done and done,” Basilone replied.

The ball was tossed in the air and Spiers and Basilone went at it, kicking and flinging it back and forth in a mess of feet, knees, arms and legs. Fire was thrown back and forth, the others quickly backing out of the way and forming a ring around the two to avoid the searing heat. Flames whipped from Spiers’s hands and feet with a loud *WOOSH!* as he swatted the ball in John’s direction. With one swift kick of the leg, John sent the ball flying into a huge black pumice rock, the stone shattering on impact with sharp shards raining down on the heads of the others. Even Spiers was shocked that John had shattered the rock, his jaw hanging open like a guppy.

“Looks like you owe me lunch for two weeks,” Basilone chuckled.

“Alright,” Spiers said. “But just this once.”

“Holy shit,” one of the boys remarked.

“Oh come on Toye,” Spiers said. “It was a reasonable bargain wasn’t it?”

“No,” Toye replied. “Look.”

The boys turned their gazes up to the sky as something black and powdery fell from the clouds. The fire nation wasn’t known for cold weather or snow. Maybe it was the volcano on Crescent Island again. After all, the damn thing was still active. Maybe one of the firebending masters had triggered an eruption.

No……..no they would have felt it.

Spiers looked out onto the deep blue field of the sea when he spotted something that seemed completely out of the ordinary. Large plumes of black stained the burning sunset, drifting closer and closer to the island. Spiers felt a pang of fear deep in his chest when he saw the faint outline of ships sailing towards the island.

“Shit,” Spiers hissed.

“Spiers?” Martin asked him. “Spiers what is it?”

“Tell everybody to head back to the house and get somewhere safe,” Spiers ordered. “I think those are raider ships.”

Martin’s eyes widened with fear. “Alright guys,” he said. “Come on, we’ve gotta go. Let’s move.”

They took off, heading back for the house while Spiers left down a different street, heading for the drum towers. _Keep calm…_.he told himself. _No matter how afraid you get, remember to keep calm…..people’s lives depend on it….._

“Kairo!!” Spiers called to the watchman. “Kairo!”

“Who goes?!” the watchman called out.

“Ships!” Spiers told him. “Ships spotted five miles out!”

The watchman quickly sprang to his feet and began banging away at the enormous taiko drum in the tower with a pair of sticks made carved from hard bloodwood. The thunderous beating echoed across Ember Island with others in the watchtowers following suit. It wasn’t long before the whole town began to panic, men, women and children hurrying to the boats near the docks. Fire Nation soldiers lit the warning beacons all around the island when the ground was rocked by a sudden explosion. Spiers felt the ground coming up beneath him as he lost his balance and fell on the cobbled walkway, hitting his head hard and skinning the palms of his hands. Debris and dust from a ruined building rained down on his head like snow as he staggered to his feet, shaking the grey dust from his hair and blinking his watering eyes.

With his head and ears ringing from the explosion and ignoring the stinging burn in his hand, Spiers broke into a run, hurrying past frightened civilians and soldiers rushing for the docks. His footfalls hit the ground rapidly as he tried to find his way to the house, blindly running through the maze of alleys and sidestreets. Smoke and dust choked the air as more bombardments hit the shores and the inland areas, the firebenders doing everything in their power to hold back whatever was attacking the shores. His throat and eyes burned from the heat and suffocating dust, but Spiers willed himself to keep going.

When he finally arrived at the villa, the others were frantic. None of them could believe what they were seeing as fireballs flew over the house and into the streets that lay just a few feet away. “Everyone out!” he ordered. “Move it! Move it! Get out of here! Get to the docks!”

The boys gathered whatever they could carry and made headway for the docks. Spiers rushed past them and raced up the creaky stairs to his room at the far end of the hall, grabbing only his most personal and sentimental possessions, the photo of his mother and siblings, the knife he kept in the drawer and a drawstring pouch containing the medals and pins he had earned during his time in the lower school, shoving them all into a bag and bolting out of there as fast as his feet could carry him.  
The floors shuddered and shook beneath his feet from the bombardments outside, the fiery boulders battering the ground and threatening to level the whole of Ember Island. Spiers clambered down the stairs, jumping two at a time before clearing the last three and rushing out the door. His chest and muscles tightened from the running, threatening to cripple him senseless before he had a chance to get away.

 _Keep going…._.he urged. _Keep going no matter what might come at you….keep going until you can’t anymore……run for your life!!!_

Spiers pushed himself further, even as a stitch tore through his side and strangled his breath. The docks weren’t far, maybe a few more yards at most. He could hear the others calling his name, Toye, Guarnere, Martin, Talbert, Basilone, Morgan, Rodriguez, Conley and Perconte all calling his name. J _ust a few more yards…..just a few more yards……go and don’t stop…..get as far away from here as you can!! MOVE!!!!_

“Spiers!!”

“Spiers!!

“Come this way!”

“Move Spiers!!”

Spiers heard the clunking of wood beneath his feet, following the shouts and yells of his academy classmates as he rushed across the dock to the awaiting boat. He jumped from the edge and landed in the arms of his friends, out of breath and his energy spent as they began to drift away on the choppy waters.

“Oh God,” Floyd Talbert said hoarsely. “What have they done?”

None of them could believe what they were seeing. Ember Island, once a lush seaside paradise, had been turned into an inferno, the flames rising high into the blackened skies and the heat blasting out onto the sea. The awful crackling of flames and *BOOM!* of the artillery fire echoed in their ears as the group drifted further out to sea in that small wooden boat. There was no sign of their families, friends, teachers from the academy, save for a few others in the boats drifting ahead of them into the black.

“Henry!!!!” Guarnere shouted, calling the name of his older brother.

There was no answer.

“HENRY!!!!”

Still no answer.

“HENRY!!”

“HENRY!!!”

It was no use. No one had answered. Guarnere felt a knot coiling in his chest and his heart sinking. Henry had mentored him all through the academy, showing him every rope and helping him learn from every mistake he had ever made. Burning tears fell from his eyes as he listened to the whipping of flames and the quiet of the night. As he gazed upon the burning island, Guarnere silently said goodbye to Henry, giving him a final Fire Nation salute and a bow of his head.

**Eastern Air Temple**

The clang of the warning bells roused all of the residents of the Western Air Temples from their sleep, the airbending students jumping to their feet and hurrying to the balcony to see what the commotion was. Tipper was the last to lag behind as always, the quiet, soft-spoken kid who sat in the back row of the meditation hall and going about unnoticed for the most part. He threw aside the bedcovers and rushed out into the hall in his bare feet, the other boys clambering into the halls with the monks and the nuns.  
Tipper tried to get a good look at what was going on, standing on the tips of his toes and peering over the heads of his fellow airbending classmates. The smell of smoke was almost overpowering and the sound of crumbling stone startled them all witless.

“Everyone gather your things from your rooms,” the head monk ordered. “Go now!”

Everyone made their way back through the halls and raced to their rooms to gather only their most personal possessions. Tipper and his roommate, Chuckler, hurried to gather their things in a drawstring bag, their nerves ringing with fear as the warning bells kept ringing in the watchtowers. He had been about to leave when he heard a pair of familiar squeaky cries coming from under his bed.

“Shit,” he hissed.

Doubling back to his room, Tipper grabbed a burlap sack from the coathook and held it open. Two baby winged lemurs skittered from under the bed and jumped up onto their tower perch, their large ears folded back in fright.

“Pik, Pak,” Tipper called to them. “Come on babies, get in.”

The two baby lemurs, barely the size of a lemon, leapt from the perch and soared on their delicate little wings into the opening of the warm sack, huddling against each other for protection. Tipper hurried from the room and followed the rest of the temple’s occupants through the airy hallways and out into the courtyard. Up above, fireballs streaked through the night sky like comets, their tails lashing those on the ground with their heat. Tipper and the others raced to the only other place they knew they would be able to get away……the stables.

“Come on! Somebody open the doors already!” Babe Heffron panicked.

Chuckler and the other airbenders forced open the stable doors that creaked and groaned on their heavy, worn out hinges. The boys rushed into the stables where the sky bison were beginning to panic, bellowing and snorting with fright as their masters saddled them up.

Skip Muck and Alex Penkala jumped into the saddle, the blast of air beneath their hands and feet propelling them onto the back of one of the sky bison. “Luz!” they shouted. “Luz come on! Get in! Get in!”

George Luz hurriedly whipped up a blast of air and flew into the saddle with Muck and Penkala. Grant, Julian and Heffron were the last three to jump in before they gave the command to take off and get out of there. Skinny Sisk and Albert Blithe jumped in beside Buck Compton and took off with the others following suit. Tipper skidded to a halt near the stall belonging to a big male he had tamed three summers before, bending the air around him and lifting both of his bags into the saddle before using it on himself. Once both feet were in, he was ready.

“Juji, yip yip!” he commanded.

The sky bison bellowed before taking off into the air with the others. Tipper’s eyes widened with terror and his mouth hung open like a gasping fish as Juji climbed higher and higher into the air. The minarets and towers of the Eastern Air temple were completely engulfed in flame with the pillars of black smoke rising into the air.

“Hey!!!” someone shouted from below. “Hey!! Come back!! Somebody come back!! Come back!!

Tipper reigned Juji in and steered the bison towards the courtyard and the frantically waving figure. They scooped him right up and flew away into the night sky, away from the burning air temple and the danger that surrounded them.

“Jeez Malarkey,” Tipper said. “Why didn’t you use your glider?”

“I left it behind,” Malarkey said in between the deep breaths he took. “Didn’t have time to go back and grab it.”

Juji climbed high into the air, following the others in front of them as they soared over the lush, green mountains that surrounded the Eastern Air Temple. _Where the hell do we go from here…??_ Tipper wondered.

“LOOK OUT!!!” Malarkey shouted.

A huge fireball hurtled right over their heads and blasted right into the mountain close by. An ear shattering explosion tore through the air and before he knew it, Tipper had lost control of Juji. The bison panicked, snorting and roaring as his side fell against the cliff faces. Tipper slid from the bison’s neck with his back landing against a dull stone, his breath catching as it jumped out of his lungs and his head knocked against the rock wall. His fingers coiled around Juji’s reigns as the bison shook off the impact, his grip tightening until his knuckles were white as a sheet.

With his head throbbing and his body bruised, Tipper hauled himself into the saddle, the muscles in his arms, back and stomach tightening until he finally found himself sitting on the back of Juji’s large, wide neck. He took several deep breaths to try and get some air into him but when he and Malarkey turned around, they thought they would be sick. The Eastern Air Temple, the only home that they and their classmates had ever known, was destroyed. It burned like a warning beacon, lighting up the dark mountain valley and shattering the peace that had once been theirs. Tipper heard screaming down below, faint and eerie, like the voices of sad ghosts long forgotten by their kin. But these weren’t ghosts that were screaming. These were their teachers, their mentors, the mother and father figures to these forgotten boys who were crying out for help.

His bag rustled and out of the opening crawled Pik and Pak. The two baby lemurs inched their way to the edge of Juji’s saddle, peering over the edge with their tiny fingers holding on for dear life. Pak’s ears perked straight up as he tilted his head back and let forth a sad, throaty cry that echoed across the canyon. Tipper shook his head as a single tear fell from his brown eyes and steered Juji away from the burning wreckage of their home. He couldn’t believe it. He didn’t want to believe it.

He and the others, were the last of the Airbenders.


	2. The Drifters

**Harbor Town**   
**Earth Kingdom**

“Passports!” the clerk called out to the line of waiting patrons. “Passports and tickets please!”

Dick was lucky that he could have even afforded one. Weeks of wandering alone had given him just enough time to scrape together enough yuans to pay for what he needed, but still feared it wouldn’t be enough. He had been painfully careful with the money, so painfully careful that there had been nights where he had forced himself to go hungry just so he could set aside enough to pay for both a ticket and a passport. I _f it’ll get me anywhere out of this godforsaken place so be it_ …..he thought. _Bad enough they destroyed the village…..they’ll tear up the whole Earth Kingdom if given the chance….._

Dick was next in line, presenting his passport and ticket to the clerk who observed them through his oversized glasses, his white beard and moustache twitching as he made careful mental notes. “Very well young man, you may go,” he said.

Dick collected his papers and followed the crowd to the waiting docks. The ships were all neatly anchored in rows, with their bright yellow and green sails while the smaller ferries were awaiting to take people to the cities along the coast or further away. Dick hadn’t had the faintest idea of where he was going. He only hoped it was better than the place he had escaped from.  
But then there was the thought of his family. He had no notion whatsoever of what had happened to Mom and Dad, or even Ann for that matter. Whatever had happened to them, he could only hope that they had gotten away.

The shuffling of feet made him snap out of it before his gaze turned to a young man approaching the stone benches, his short crop of tar black hair neatly brushed out of his face and his dark eyes searching for a place to sit. His tunic was woven in the usual shades of olive green, black and gold while on his feet were a pair of shiny black boots, something that a higher ranking member of the Earth Kingdom society could afford.

“Going my way?” the young man asked.

“I guess,” Dick replied with a shrug.

The young man casually sat beside Dick, dropping his drawstring bag on the floor between his feet. “You from around these parts?”

Dick shook his head. “You?”

“I’m from out east,” the young man told him. “Ba Sing Se if you want specifics.”

Ba Sing Se?! Now there was a first. In his short twenty five years of life, Dick had never been beyond the borders of Tai Sai, only able to glean stories of that huge, impenetrable fortress city from merchants and travelers who came to trade once a month. “So what’s a guy like you doing out here?” he asked.

“Oh you know,” the young man replied. “Had to get out, see the world for a little while. I didn’t like feeling trapped at home, you know?”

Dick nodded, although he couldn’t really relate to that sort of a predicament. He too had wanted to see the world, but the farm had made it hard to do so. He had remembered when his father had promised he would one day see Ba Sing Se, but now Dick wondered if he would ever get to.

“How about you?” the young man asked him. “You heading out that way?”

“Wasn’t planning on it,” Dick answered. “But I guess at this point I’ll go just about anywhere.”

“How about this,” the young man said. “I’ll let you tag along for the ride and we’ll find a place to stay. Besides, I need a friend to travel with. I hate going it alone.”

Dick chuckled, thinking the same exact thing. Maybe he’d get to see Ba Sing Se after all. “Alright,” he said. “I’ll go. As long as it doesn’t get me killed. Name’s Richard by the way. Richard Winters.”

“Lewis Nixon,” the dark haired young man replied, shaking Dick’s hand. “Everybody calls me Nix.”

The more they talked, the more Dick felt relaxed and perfectly at ease around his new friend. In no time at all, both he and Nix were talking as though they were old friends and before long, the captains called out for the boats to board.

“Looks like that’s our call,” Nix said. “We’ll go as far as Gaoling and then we’ll have to find our way elsewhere.”

“You think we’ll find what we’re looking for there?” Dick asked him.

“Maybe,” Nix replied. “And maybe not.”

The two of them gathered their things and fell into the crowd, heading towards the boats and up the gangplank. Once all the ships had boarded, the captain gave orders to head out to sea. The boats pulled away from the docks and sailed out onto the open water, leaving Harbor Town behind. Dick and Nix watched until the shoreline shrank, just a little bit at a time until it became nothing more than a razor thin line on the horizon.

“Ok now the one thing you’ve got to remember about Gaoling,” Nix informed Dick as they went below to the crowded bunk quarters. “It’s really old and many of the families are middle and upper class. The middle class aren’t so bad, but once you get into the high society circles every little thing counts.”

“Is that the way it is in Ba Sing Se?”

“Through and through,” Nix replied. “I got enough of it when I lived with my family.”

“Let me guess,” Dick said. “They were some of those arrogant rich jerks who ram it into their kids heads that they own the world and everyone in it?”

“Oh you have no idea,” Nix chuckled hollowly. “My father kicked me out about four years ago and I’ve wandered the Earth Kingdom ever since.”

“Why’d he kick you out?” asked a voice from the bunk below.

On the bunk below them was a curly haired young man wearing deep olive greens and dark browns, evident with the signs that they had been worn down and repaired countless times. His bare feet leaned against the bunk post, smelly, calloused and blistered from walking everywhere while his mud flecked boots lay under the bed with his bag.

“You heard that?” Nix asked him.

“I got two ears that aren’t broken,” the young man said. “But you didn’t answer the question. Why’d your father kick you out?”

“He kicked me out because he thought I was a burden on the family,” Nix explained. “And that I was utterly hopeless like my grandfather. You wanna know the last thing he said to me before I left?”

“Shoot.”

“He said ‘The best thing I can hope is never to see you again,” Nix said. “And that your little sister will be better off without your influence around.”

The young man scoffed and shook his head. “You’re better off without people like that,” he said. “The upper ringers think they own everyone and everything in the world but once they set foot outside their sheltering walls they go nuts.”

Dick chuckled a little bit, knowing it was true. Once he had seen a procession of wealthy travelers coming into Tai Sai and carrying a wealthy lady from Ba Sing Se in a palanquin. When she had peered at the village outside, she looked awfully disgusted at the toil of the villagers and how dirty some of them were. He laughed at the memory of when the woman saw Ann and the other village children playing in the mud pits after the rainstorms had soaked Wulong for over a week, all of them splattered and covered in wet, sweet smelling earth. She had screamed and hastily shut the curtains, averting her eyes, but oh was it worth it to see them…..just kids being kids……the way it should have always been.

“Your family was from Ba Sing Se?” the curly haired man asked.

“Yeah,” Nix replied. “Upper ringers. The Nixon family if you want specifics.”

The man chuckled. “Oh believe me I know them,” he replied. “I’ve seen them pass by our house in the Lower Ring so many times that I’ve lost count.”

“You’re from the Lower Ring?”

“Mmmhmm,” the young man replied. “Hailing from Clan Welsh, prince of thieves, pickpockets and garbage pickers. But everybody just calls me Harry.”

“Nice to meet you,” Dick replied, shaking Harry’s hand. “Name’s Dick. This is Nix.”

“Same to you,” Harry replied. “Where are you from? Didn’t figure you for someone who was from Ba Sing Se.”

“No, I’m from a bit further out,” Dick replied. “From the Wulong area.”

“Ah farm country,” Harry mused. “There’ve been some famous earthbenders from out that way. You’re a bender too?”

“Huh? Oh…..yeah, yeah” Dick stammered. “My little sister and I both were and so was my father.”

“Your mother?”

“Not really,” Dick replied. “She never really mastered it.”

“Shame,” Harry said. “Just wait until you get to Gaoling. You’re in for a real shock.”

Dick felt a bit uneasy, but if anything was certain, it was that he had already had the shock of his life. Between being told that he was the Avatar and Tai Sai being destroyed, there wasn’t much more that could possibly shock him any further.

The echo of more voices filtered through the crowded bunkhall, voices that bantered back and forth about one thing or another until they reached the back of the hall where Dick, Nix and Harry had chosen their bunks. _Holy shit, they’ve got to be Southern Water Tribe_ ……Dick thought when he saw the young men in short sleeved, dark blue tunics making their way to the bunks with their bags slung over their shoulders and worn out boots on their feet.

“Look once we get to Gaoling we’ll figure it out ok?”

“Joe come on,” the redhead complained.

“Chuck just quit your bellyaching,” Joe said as he tossed his bag onto the top bunk. “We’ll stock up on food in an hour or two but if you lie down and go to sleep it won’t be so bad.”

Chuck tossed his bag up onto his bunk, gripping the chain posts in his shaky hands as he scaled his way to the top, ignoring the noisy growling in his stomach and the empty ache in his bones. He took the bracers off his arms and shoved them into his bag, pulling down the rolled up sleeves of the silver shirt he wore under his tunic. _I wish we didn’t have to go_ ……he thought.

Joe climbed his way up to the very top bunk across from Chuck while Haldane, Leckie and Hoosier took the other bunks. Weeks of sailing away from the South Pole had been hard on all five of them, having to leave behind the only home they had ever known. All of them were sweaty and grimy, desperately craving a shower or something to get rid of the nasty film of sweat and the stench of body odor that others like them reeked of. _I’ll go up to the deck later and see if we can get clean......If we go any longer nobody will want to come within four feet of us….._

“Hey!” someone called out.

Liebgott didn’t even see what was thrown at him until his hands shot up in front of him and caught it. When he saw the large leaf wrappings, his eyes went wide. “Hey thanks,” he called back to the man.

“No problem,” Dick answered. “Figured you guys were probably starved and needed them more than we did.”

Liebgott was grateful for the gesture, a favor that he hadn’t asked for but desperately needed. Those sweet buns were an absolute lifesaver at times like these, something rare that wasn’t always found in the frozen lands of the Southern Water Tribe. He passed one off to Chuck who eagerly dug right in and gave one to Leckie, another to Hoosier and the other to Haldane, saving the last one for himself.

“How’d you get these?” he asked Dick.

“Got’em from a seller’s stall before we left,” Dick replied. “You guys look like you haven’t eaten in a week.”

“Feels like it,” Liebgott chuckled. “I’m gonna need a bath at some point too otherwise I’ll jump overboard.”

“Nah you wouldn’t wanna do that, “ Lewis told him. “Especially if we go anywhere near the Serpent’s Pass.”

For a while all of them talked, going back and forth and introducing themselves and before long, Dick had five new additions to their merry band of misfits. Four of them were wide awake and eager to talk, but Tatum, their redheaded companion, clearly needed sleep.

“So what’s his deal?” Dick asked. “Didn’t think any kids in the Southern Tribe had red hair.”

“No they do but it’s a rare thing,” Liebgott replied. “We all grew up together, that’s how we know each other.”

“Under one roof?” Dick asked him.

Lieb nodded. “His Gran-Gran practically raised us.”

“What happened?” he asked again. “Why’d you guys leave?”

Liebgott could hardly bring himself to answer. It was still painful to think about the night that the South Pole had been attacked and that their mothers and Chuck’s grandmother was still missing. “Raid,” he said quietly.

Dick felt a pang of guilt at having asked. “Oh no.”

Lieb nodded. “The five of us were just having fun out on the ice,” he answered. “One minute we were all laughing and having fun like when we were little kids……and then we saw black snow.”

Dick had learned full well what black snow had meant for the people of the South Pole in decades past. The raids were often swift and quick, sometimes coming without warning. “Family?”

“We ran away before we knew what happened to them,” Liebgott answered. “All we’ve got left were the betrothal necklaces our moms and Gran-Gran left behind.”

Now Dick really felt terrible. He thought he had lost quite a bit in the last few weeks, but that was nothing compared to what the raid must have been like. But as bad as things might have seemed then, it was at least a comfort to know that he and the others weren’t alone. “I’m really sorry to hear that,” he said. “Is there anything we can do for you guys?”

“Nah,” Lieb said with a wave of his hand. “What you gave us was enough. It’s better than having to pick through what people throw away.”

“Guess you’re right,” Dick told him. “But hey, when we get to Gaoling I’m sure we’ll be better off.”

Lieb agreed but he was doubtful. They hadn’t come aboard with much and they wouldn’t be leaving with much either. Who was to say that they wouldn’t have to live the same way in Gaoling? Carving out a meager existence while the wealthier families could look down their noses at them from on high? He knew that some families of the Earth Kingdom didn’t take kindly at all to those who were from different nations. No, they were just as stubborn as their element, resentful and resistant to any kind of change be it from the outside or in.

“Either way,” Lieb said. “We’re gonna have to find a place. We can’t keep wandering around forever.”

“We won’t,” Dick assured him.

_The screams pierce the cold air of the night as black flakes fall from the dark skies above……the winds whip and hurl snow in all directions while buildings burn and light up the night…..The heat melts the icy snow and the shouting reaches a fever pitch at the city walls…….but no one can see them….._

_“Chuck!! Chuck!! Where are you?! Where are you?! Come back!!”_

_“Gran-Gran?!”_

_“Chuck?! Chuck sweetheart answer me! Speak to me!!”_

_A huge whip of flame comes right down on him……he screams…….but no one hears….._

“NO!!!”

Chuck Tatum screamed and struck the wall next to his bunk with a closed fist, his red hair sticking to his forehead that was coated in a cold sweat. “Oh God…….oh.”

He looked down at his hand and saw blood, his own red hot blood, running in sticky red rivulets from the huge gashes in his knuckles. His hand shook and trembled as he touched the stinging cuts that burned worse than a mink snake bite. It crept up his arm, into his shoulder and back down again, growing worse as it was left to the exposed air.

Tatum pulled the gourd jug from his pack, stuck it between his knees and twisted off the cap with his good hand. He bent the water inside, the liquid inside lifting itself out of the jug and enveloping his hurt hand in a cool, slippery pocket. A shudder went up the small of his back but the wound just wouldn’t stop stinging. He squeezed a few painful tears out of his eyes as a painful groan escaped his throat. The pain was so bad he hadn’t even noticed the sound of feet climbing the metal bedframes as someone made his way up to his bunk.

“Woah, woah, hang on a minute,” a young man said to him. “Stop. You’re gonna wreck your knuckles if you keep putting water on it.”

Chuck felt a pang of shame as the dark haired, dark eyed young man took his battered hand and looked at his knuckles. Chuck sucked in a breath of air through his teeth when the young man touched the wound, flinching at the sudden sting.

“That needs to be cauterized,” the young man said. “I’ll be back in a second.”

He disappeared back to the bottom bunk and returned barely a minute later with a roll of bandages. Chuck returned the water right to the jug and screwed the cap back on before stowing it away in his bag. “Here,” the young man said. “Let me see your hand.”

Chuck reluctantly held out his hand and the young man set to work. Chuck felt his knuckles growing warmer and warmer, until his whole hand was enveloped in a pleasant heat. The stinging pain that had once been there vanished in the blink of an eye as thin threads of red, orange, yellow, pink and pale purple coiled and wrapped around his hand. Chuck’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head as the bright threads illuminated their faces. Not in his entire life had he ever seen anything as amazing as this! It was the most beautiful and startling thing he had ever seen.

“You’re…..you’re a firebender!” he said with breathless awe.

The young man didn’t say a word to him about it. “Keep your hand wrapped and you won’t have any problems,” he told him. “Thanks to that, you won’t need stitches.”

Chuck was still in awe of the young man’s firebending skill. There was no possible way that any ordinary firebender could do that. That was something that only masters could have achieved. “Are you a master?” he asked.

“No,” the man replied. “I learned that at the academy.”

Chuck was still awestruck. Whatever they had taught him at such a school had certainly served him well. The stinging was completely gone along with the throbbing pain in the bones. Yet there was one shred of pain that hadn’t gone away……the pain of the nightmare. He wanted to tell someone about it, but he was afraid of being called a crybaby.

“Listen,” Chuck said. “Thank you. Sorry if I woke you, Mister…..?”

“Basilone,” the young man replied. “John Basilone.”

Basilone?! This kid was a member of the Basilone clan? They were a powerful family in the Fire Nation and for generations had been staunch allies of Avatar Kyoshi when she had lived. Their family had produced numerous and equally famous firebending masters, but never did Chuck ever think he would meet one of them in person.

“I…..I’m….sorry….name’s Tatum, Charles Tatum. I’m from the Southern Water Tribe.”

“Good to know,” John said. “Remember, keep that thing wrapped and clean and you won’t have any problems. Got it?”

Chuck nodded fervently.

“Good,” John replied. “I’m heading back to bed. Wake me if there’s a problem.”

Chuck quietly slipped back under the moth-eaten covers and tried to go back to sleep. He couldn’t believe he had just met John Basilone! Of all the good things that could have happened to him that one had certainly made his night. For the first time in a long time, Chuck Tatum was able to go to sleep that night with a smile on his face and a deep sense of peace in his mind.


	3. Three's Company, But Ten's A Crowd

**City of Gaoling**

**Earth Kingdom**

Crowded.

Crowded and sprawling. Those would have been the best words to describe Gaoling if Dick and the others could have even thought of it.

The whole of Gaoling was DEFINITELY not what he had expected. Everything here was packed tighter than a sardine can in the poor district, the rooves and awnings weather worn while the cobbled streets were alive with the comings and goings of peasants, merchants and artisans. Shoes clicked on the cobblestones, the creaky turning of cart wheels being pulled by ostrich horses and the noisy shouts of hawkers selling jewelry, cloth, silk, shoes, cookware and other goods. Smells of roasting chicken, duck and cabbage reached their noses along with incense from streetside shrines and temples. Dirty water sloshed into the gutters from the windows and doors of houses, the stink wafting into their noses while small clouds of dust drifted their way from the carts.

“This is Gaoling?” Dick asked Nix.

“Yep,” Nix replied. “It’s the poorer section. If you can survive here, you’ll be able to survive anywhere.”

“Oh God!” Lieb exclaimed as they wandered through the streets, pulling his shirt collar over his nose. “What the fuck is that smell?”

“Trust me,” Nix told him. “You don’t want to know.”

Liebgott made a gagging noise as they hurried along to get away from whatever was causing the stench. They moved further and further into the poor district, looking for a place to stay that wasn’t completely falling apart. It wasn’t an easy feat, having to avoid tiles that fell off the eaves of the rooves and avoiding the occasional splatter of emptied nightsoil from the women in upstairs windows emptying the nightstools. Poor Liebgott looked like he was going to be sick as the awful stench clung to the back of his throat.

They approached a house that looked decent enough, brown tiled and with intricately carved wooden screens that made it look a bit better than most of the other places they had seen. Nix had found the old man who kept the place and haggled with him fort almost an hour before the old man finally relented and let them take the place, but when they walked inside, it was nothing like what they had seen on the outside. It was worse.

Dust had gathered EVERYWHERE! In every crack, crevice and in between every floorboard and along the windowsills while broken pieces of furniture littered the floors. The whole place smelled of dust, dirt, mildew and a dampness that none of them found to be pleasant at all.

“Guess it’s not as bad as it could have been,” Dick remarked. “Lieb what do you guys think?”

“I think this place oughtta be condemned, burned to the foundation line and then have its ashes scattered in a badgermole tunnel,” Liebgott remarked. “I mean who the hell lives like this anyways?”

“Look I know it’s not the best place we could get,” Nix told him. “But at least we’re not sleeping in shit clogged gutters next to a bunch of elephant rats, right?”

“Yeah but at least elephant rats have the courtesy to bring you back something shiny for your troubles,” Hoosier joked.

Leckie decided to traipse off to see the rest of the house and whether it was in worse shape than the entryway. A disgusted grimace contorted his features the minute he saw the kitchen, the wood floors spattered with stuck on, greasy stains, the stone sink full of broken and filthy dishes while the equally filthy rushes on the floors were in bad need of sweeping. As for the baskets above the counter on the bamboo shelf? There was no telling what kinds of pests had made their home there.

_Must’ve been years since someone lived here….._ he thought.

Leckie jumped when he heard footsteps coming into the kitchen but when he turned around he was relieved to see that it was only Ack Ack.

“Man this place is a dump,” Haldane remarked.

“You think?” Leckie chuckled.

“Hell yeah it is,” Haldane answered. “Can’t imagine why anybody would have wanted it if they left it in this state.”

Leckie couldn’t figure it out for the life of him either. Really, what was the point if no one was willing to take care of the place?

He would have answered had it not been for the commotion that erupted outside in the square. Something crashed to the ground, the high pitched squawking of chickens and a vile string of curses followed in its wake. Leckie and Haldane rushed out the kitchen door and into the square as a rush of air blew past them. All they saw was a blur of rust red and orange zooming right by with two others following in his wake and an angry shopkeeper shouting all sorts of searing obscenities at the three.

“Thieves!” he shouted as he ran after them. “Filthy little thieves! Lying, cheating, little bastards!! I’ll show you what happens to viperous little shits like you!”

Leckie and Ack Ack trailed after them, following them through the maze of alleyways and side streets. Damn these three were quick! They leapt over crates and barrels with tremendous ease while their light footsteps carried them lightning fast over the cobblestones.

“Malarkey, whip it!” the dark haired one shouted.

The redhead, who went by the name of Malarkey, whipped the staff he held and was suddenly lifted into the air by a huge spout of wind that carried him to the upper balcony of one of the houses. The other two quickly followed suit, stirring up gusts of wind that lifted them high into the air and onto the balcony with their companion.

“I’m warning you, you wretched brats!!” the shopkeeper shouted. “The minute you come down here I’ll have your hands chopped off and thrown in the stewpot!!”

“Look buddy,” the dark haired one said. “We weren’t looking for trouble we just wanted some eggs.”

The shopkeeper didn’t listen. He stomped the ground with his foot and kicked up a large rock, hurling it at the three young men who batted it right out of the way with the staffs they carried, the rock shattering like glass and falling to the ground below. The shopkeeper didn’t relent. He just kept going, raising large, hard rocks out of the earth and trying to hit the three boys who were far too quick for him.

Leckie and Haldane had to laugh. The three were as springy as a trio of winged lemurs, leaping out of the way and jumping over the boulders as the angry shopkeeper flung one after the other at them. The wooden balconies splintered on impact, the shards of wood flying beneath their feet as the three young men stirred up gusts of wind and blew the rocks back down to the ground below.

“Think we oughtta teach this knucklehead a lesson?” Leckie asked.

“I think we’ve seen enough,” Ack Ack agreed.

Not a soul in the crowd noticed as Leckie and Ack Ack took hold of the water in a nearby trough and brought it towards their target, hanging it above the shopkeeper’s head before bringing it down onto him with a resounding *SPLASH!!!*. His clothes sagged and darkened as they clung to him like a second skin and his face going red with anger.

“Oh why you little…….”

“Hey, hey, take it easy there stretch,” Haldane insisted. “Why don’t you go pick on someone your own size.”

The angered and incensed man stomped off and left them behind, rounding the corner until he completely disappeared from sight. “Dumbass,” Andy muttered under his breath.

The three young men in their rust red wrap robes and sandals came drifting down from the balconies, surfing down the column of silvery air until they reached the ground below. “Hey thanks for covering our asses,” one of them said. “We could’ve fended him off, but thanks anyways.”

“The hell even got you guys in trouble anyways?” Haldane enquired.

“Luz here thought it would be a brilliant idea to try and get some eggs,” the blonde headed one said. “We got here about three days ago and didn’t have any money for food.”

“Muck,” Luz said. “C’mon it wasn’t stealing. I was just borrowing and he didn’t give me a chance to ask.”

_Well there’s a fresh pile of bullshit if I’ve ever heard it….._ Haldane thought laughingly.

“Here,” he said. “Why don’t you guys come back with us. We’ve got a place if you need it.”

“Plenty of room for stray animals?” Luz asked him.

“Depends on how you define ‘stray animals,’” Andy told him.

Oh this one was _quick!!_ If it was anything Luz loved and enjoyed above all it was the company of someone who could make quick jokes. “Alright,” Luz said. “But I hope you guys know what you’re getting yourselves into.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

Luz gave a shrill whistle and out of the alleys and from the rooftops appeared others just like him, all clad in the same rust red wrap robes, brown pants and boots. Some of them carried long wooden staves in their hands as they surfed and slid on their feet down the air currents to the ground. Andy and Leckie couldn’t believe that there were so many of them. _They must travel in packs……_ Andy mused.

“Still got room for a pack of stray animals?” Luz chuckled.

“I……I guess,” Haldane stammered.

“No, no, no and no again,” Liebgott insisted.

“Oh come on, I swear we’ll be good,” Luz told him.

“There’s no fucking room here!” Lieb replied. “So what makes you think that you guys can just shack up here on a whim?

Dick didn’t want to listen to the argument any more than he had to. The incessant bickering grated at his patience just a little bit each time they went back and forth, flinging insults at each other. _Alright…..there’s only one way to settle this…._

Dick marched straight into the kitchen, Luz and Liebgott completely wrapped up in their own argument without even seeing him there. A stamp of the foot and a punch of the fist was all it took before a large rock shot up from the kitchen floor between the two and quieted their argument.

“First of all,” Dick said to the two. “Knock it off. Secondly, if you’re going to fight, take it out into the back alley.”

The two of them cast their sheepish eyes to the floor, but neither of them had any intention of settling the argument themselves. “He started it,” Luz said.

“Either way,” Dick said, trying hard to keep his last shred of patience intact. “I’m well aware that we’ve got a crowded house. Joe, you unfortunately are going to have to control that thing you call a temper…..and Luz…..would it kill you to at least _try_ to not get on people’s nerves?”

Luz gave him another sheepish look, secretly crossing his fingers behind his back.

“Alright, now that the argument is settled we might as well try and fix this place up,” Dick remarked. “I have a feeling we’re probably going to be here for a while.”

He left the two to their own devices and made his way back upstairs just in case they started bickering again. Just as he had cleared the last step, the front door swung open with Harry and Nix making their grand entrance and Harry giggling like an idiot.

“What?” he asked. “Harry what did you do?”

“You’ll never guess what I managed to get,” he said, the mischievous grin growing wider and wider until it revealed a gap-toothed smile.

“A venereal disease?” Dick asked flatly.

“Oh ha-ha, very funny,” Harry retorted. “But no. I managed to get us all tickets to the Earth Rumble Tournament right here in Gaoling.”

“You wasted our last savings on tickets to a tournament?!”

“Ok before you go chewing my limbs off here…..”

“Harry!”

“I got them because you _have_ to see these guys,” Harry explained.

“Oh great,” Dick muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration.

“I’m telling you, you won’t be disappointed,” Harry told him. “When you see these guys, it’ll blow your socks right off.”

Dick slumped to the stairs and heaved a sigh. “Ok,” he said. “Ok……we’ll go.”

Harry and Nix cheered, high fiving each other before they left to tell the others. _Well Dad, now I know how you felt whenever Ann and I got into mischief……_


	4. Get Ready to Rumble

The roar of the crowd was deafening in the underground arena as the thunderous pounding of the taiko drums shook the glowing crystals that lit up the stadium. Dick, Harry, Nix and the rest of their gaggle of misfit benders filtered their way through the unruly audience to try and find a seat, avoiding the occasional spillage of drinks, flaming fire flakes and shelled peanuts that were constantly falling on their feet.

“I CANNOT believe I let you talk us into this Harry,” Dick said as they moved carefully past unruly spectators towards their seats.

“I never said you had to come, did I?”

Dick rolled his eyes as they kept moving, eager to reach the seats before someone spilled mango juice all over them.

“Man I can’t wait to see this performance,” Muck said excitedly. “Some lucky bastard’s gonna win a grand prize of two thousand yuans. He’ll get billeted in a fancy house in the upper corners, sitting under a banyan tree with six naked concubines helping him cut up bananas so he can hand feed’em to the turtle ducks.”

“Turtle ducks are mean,” Babe Heffron remarked. “They bite.”

“So do the concubines,” Luz replied cheekily.

They billeted themselves into their seats and made themselves comfortable, but no sooner had they seated themselves than they heard more bickering behind them.

“I swear to God Frank,” a young man’s voice said. “This had better have been worth it.”

“John come on, have I ever proven you wrong?”

“Once or twice.”

Dick saw Tatum’s eyes go wide when he heard the voices behind them. “Why the wide eyes Chuck?”

“That guy behind us,” Tatum whispered. “That’s John Basilone.”

“Who the hell’s John Basilone?” Dick asked him.

“Jeez do you live in a cave?” Tatum said. “The guy comes from a family of firebending masters. His great-great grandfather trained three Avatars throughout his lifetime. The family’s legendary.”

Dick was bemused as to how Chuck had come to know one of the Basilone clan. He would have asked, but the drums began to play, signaling that the Earth Rumble Tournament was about to begin.

“Ladies and gentlemen from across the Earth Kingdom,” the MC announced, his voice booming across the cavern. “Welcome to the annual Earth Rumble Tournament!”

The crowd went wild with cheers and applause erupting from the audience like an out of control wildfire. The first team entered the arena from one end of the ring, all of them stocky and built with rippling muscles that were the trademark signs of pro-benders. Their arrogant swagger roused the crowd into another round of applause, reaching a fever pitch and threatening to bring down the whole arena.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the MC announced. “We welcome now into the ring, our ten time Earth Rumble champions, the Company of Kings!!”

A shrill whistle blew and out of the ground flew seven stone pillars, each with a team member perched on top, all of them clad in sage green, teal and black. They leapt from the tops of the pillars with the ground shuddering violently beneath their bare feet when they landed. The crowd cheered louder than ever before as the team kicked up dirt and huge rocks, spinning on their heels and sending them flying straight for the opposing team. Fists flew and rocks burst into tiny pieces, dust clouded the arena as the Company of Kings went head to head with the other team in a fight that threatened to bring the whole cavern crashing down on them.

“See what’d I tell ya?” Harry laughed when he saw Dick’s shocked expression.

The biggest member of their team, a curly blonde with icy blue eyes and big shoulders, spiked a huge rock, knocking his opponent clean out of the ring and into the front row seats. Rock and stone clacked and chinked together as the opponent slammed into the hard walls.

Another charged right for them, but the King Company player was far too quick for him. The brown eyed boy blocked everything his opponent threw at him, the rock slabs following the motions of his hands as they moved up, down, then up again. The clatter of rock on rock and the roaring of the audience was enough to break someone’s eardrums, but the boy kept his feet planted firmly on the ground. A huge, hulking beast of a man hurled a rock straight for the brown eyed boy. Quickly he pivoted as the rush of air whiffled just mere inches from his face before he caught it and hurled it right into the stomach of the opposing teammate.

“You little shit,” hissed another. “I’ll let you have it now!!”

The wicked beast punted another huge rock up out of the dirt. The brown eyed boy jumped five feet in the air before the rough rock had a chance to touch his feet and spiraled before slamming his feet into the ground. The ground shuddered and shook with a tremendous *BAM!!* as his bare feet hit the dirt, throwing the challenger completely off balance as he rolled out of the ring.

“Ooooh what a performance! It looks like The Boulder has once again become the pebble,” the MC chuckled.

The big blonde crouched into the dirt and the captain of the team, a boney, lanky-armed young man with bright rust red hair, raced up his back and landed on the flat tops of the earth columns, leaping from stone to stone as his foe took control of the earth, bending it to do his very bidding. The huge pillars rose and fell at a fast pace, hardly giving the boy enough time to find his balance as he leapt from a riser to a faller in quick succession.

“I don’t believe this folks,” the MC said. “It looks like Sledgehammer has met his match!”

Dick and the others stared slack jawed at the young man trying to maintain his balance on the stones. There was NO WAY that this kid was an earthbender. Earthbenders were supposed to be stocky and muscular. This kid was nothing but skin and bones…….yet he was a stubborn little fighter, unrelenting and rooted…..just like his element.

“Come on Sledgehammer!”

“Go Sledgehammer!”

“You’re the man!”

“Knock’em dead Sledgehammer!!!”

Dust choked the air and splatters of dirt pummeled the King Company team captain as he redirected it right back at the other team, pummeling the members with large rocks and stones. Finally, he had his chance. He backflipped right from the edge of the pillar and slammed his closed fists into the ground upon landing.

The sound that filled the arena reverberated through everyone’s chest and nearly ruined their ears. The opponents were sent flying right into the front row by the blast, one after the other, screaming and yelping before they hit the walls of the front row bleachers. By the end, every member of the opposing team had been completely knocked out of the ring.

Dick’s jaw dropped as the audience stood up and roared with delight at the sudden victory. “Worth it?” Harry asked him.

“Worth every second!” Dick replied, raising his voice over the noise.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the MC announced once more. “Your reigning champions, the Company of Kings!!”


	5. A Company of Kings

Sledge was relieved that the tournament was finally over. His feet were absolutely KILLING him.

He and the others hurried back through the tunnel to the place that served as their locker room, a place full of stone cubbyholes and benches while around the corners were underground springs full of steaming hot water. _As soon as I get all set and ready I’m jumping in there….._

Out of his cubbyhole he pulled a paper packet containing several small, chalky white tablets the size of his pinky fingernail. He downed one of them, washing it down his throat with a swig of water from his jug before retreating to a bench close by the steam springs.

A yelp suddenly escaped his throat as someone’s arms coiled around his waist, the two tumbling to the hard ground with the unseen assailant landing on top of Sledge, his full weight pressing him into the wet stone floors. “Something is wrong,” said a teasing voice. “Something is very, _very_ wrong if ya’ll managed to pull a stunt like that.”

“Says you ya big greaser!” Sledge retorted as he shoved his best friend off of him.

Sidney Phillips helped his best friend to his feet. A painful grimace suddenly crossed Sledge’s face as a searing burn ran up his ankles and consumed his toes. “You ok?” Sid asked.

“Feels like ants are eating my toes,” Sledge replied.

“Alright,” Sid sighed. “Ya’ll take a seat. I’ll get to you in a minute.”

Sledge seated himself on the stone bench, his stomach turning a bit when he saw that his toes were bloodied with oozing cuts that were already beginning to scab and crust with dried blood. The burning pain was something he had grown used to. Cuts, bruises, scrapes, scabs, bloody noses, bloody knuckles, callouses on the soles of his feet……it was all part of being an earthbender. He just hoped and prayed his parents would never find out.

Sid came back a moment later with a jar and a roll of bandages. “I don’t get it,” he said. “Ya’ll get banged up the way you do and you _still_ find a reason to go back into that ring.”

“You try living with my parents day after day for twenty three years of your life,” Sledge said with a chuckle.

“Very funny,” Sid said flatly. “I’m pretty sure if they knew what you and I knew, they’d flip their lids.”

Sledge unfortunately had to admit that it was true. His parents, even though he and Sid had known each other all their lives, still weren’t keen about the young waterbender’s influence on their son. Neither of them liked the fact that he and Eugene spent so much time together, traipsing off into the woods near the family estate and away from the eyes of the servants who guarded Eugene day in and day out. The earthbending master who “taught” him had always kept him at the beginner’s level, doing the same repetitive exercises every morning. But those sneak-away adventures with Sid hadn’t been in vain.

It had been on one of those adventures that Eugene had snuck away and hid in a cave, not wanting to be caught by the family guards and desperately wishing for a moment alone. Even at nine years old he didn’t frighten easily, even when the biggest in a pack of badgermoles had approached him, sniffing his hair and giving an affectionate lick with their sandpaper tongues. That was where Gene had first learned how to earthbend…..from the only other friends he had besides Sid.

Eugene sucked in a breath when Sid splashed his battered toes with a cool bit of water that swirled and spiraled out of the jug. The minute the water his feet, the better he felt. The stinging would be there for a while, but it wouldn’t be long before they healed completely.

“Oh God,” Jay groaned as he put his feet up on the bench next to Sid and Sledge. “Now I know how those Upper Ring ladies feel walking around in those tight shoes.”

“That’s what ya’ll get for doing this shit on a weekly basis,” Sid retorted.

“Hey at least it helps pay the rent,” Jay pointed out.

Sid rolled his eyes and turned to Jay’s nasty, bloodied feet once Gene had begun wrapping his in the clean white bandages. “You idiots don’t pay me enough for this shit,” Sid muttered.

The boys enjoyed the much needed respite, letting their wounds heal for a little while and soaking in the steam pools to get rid of the kinks in their muscles. Once they had changed into a fresh set of clothes, they decided that the best thing for them to do would be to go and get some food at a nearby hawker stall. But first, they had a reward to collect.

Burgie had to bargain with Xin Fu at first, but after a while the host finally relented and gave what was due. “Dumbass tried to stiff me out of the last hundred dollars,” he told them.

“Did you get what you needed?” Sledge asked.

“That and more,” Burgie said happily. “Enough for the seven of us to feast like kings.”

“Good cause I’m starvin,” Bull Randleman remarked.

The boys left the arena and headed for the food hawker’s, following the tantalizing smells of food that they were desperate to get their hands on. The place wasn’t grand, not by any means, with orange lanterns hanging from the ceiling and small wooden tables where patrons sat on tatami mats. The chatter of patrons, the clatter of pots and pans and the hiss of steam in the back kitchens were as familiar to the group as home. After the long week they had it was certainly a welcome change.

“Come on Deaky,” Sledge said as they walked on through the cobbled streets.

A little red fire ferret skittered up Sledge’s leg, back and up onto his shoulder, his bushy little tail tickling the back of Sledge’s neck. Out of all the pets Sledge could have had, Deacon had been the best, going wherever Sledge went and following him like a loyal shadow. He wouldn’t have had it any other way.

The smells from the kitchen soon reached their noses, the tangy smell of beetle worm soup, cabbage soup, meat kebabs, pan fried noodles, spicy pickled kelp, pau buns and a whole host of other foods they craved. Deacon leapt from Eugene’s shoulder and crept beneath the table, curling himself in his tail and chittering with content.

“Here’s to hoping the reward money can get us a decent place,” Burgie remarked.

“Here’s hoping,” Bull said. “It’d be nice not to have to listen to the elephant rats squeakin in the alleyways at night.”

“Or worrying about whether or not one of them will crawl into your bed,” Jay added.

It wasn’t long before the house waiter brought out the usual order, a plate of steaming pau buns, braised pork belly buns, pan fried noodles, roast duck, steamed vegetables and plenty of rice to go around.

“Man I live for days like this,” Steve Evanson remarked as he dug right in. “Beats having to bargain with the cabbage guy for food during the week.”

“Only for his cart to be destroyed later on,” Sledge chuckled.

Carwood Lipton cracked a smile. It was little moments like this that he lived for, just like the others; able to be in a close space with no one to tell them what to do or where to go. It definitely beat having to chase out unruly boarders from the house for not paying the rent on a monthly basis. He always looked forward to those Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights when he could leave the boarding house behind to go and compete. He had felt guilty at leaving his mother alone for three days to hobble around the house, but she assured Lip that the money he and the others were bringing in was more help than she could have ever asked for.

“Hey Lip,” Burgie said. “Ya’ll wanna pass me one of the pork buns?”

“Here,” Lip said, sliding the plate to him. “All yours.”

Burgie eagerly helped himself to one of the pork buns and some of the steamed vegetables, carefully lifting them onto his plate with his pair of chopsticks. “Think the money will be enough for your mom?” he asked.

“Should be,” Lip replied. “You guys have been pretty good about paying the rent so far but every little bit helps.”

Lip jumped when Deacon suddenly woke and scuttled across his feet, slipping out the rungs of the wall rail where they sat. Sledge jumped to his feet and ran out into the square, chasing after Deacon who ran on his lightning fast little paws.

“Deak! Deacon! Come back here!”

But the little fire ferret didn’t listen. He just kept running, leaping under tables, chairs and over crates full of fruit and vegetables, slaloming through open aired kitchens and around the feet of market-goers and merchants.

_Why in the hell couldn’t I have tamed a wild dog……?_ Sledge thought as he ran after the unruly little ferret.

Deacon chirped and chittered before he leapt behind a crate of cabbages and knocked the leafy green vegetables over. His bottlebrush tail flailed wildly as he grabbed ahold of the critter he had chased, only to come back out with it clutched carefully in his mouth by the scruff of its neck.

“Deacon…..Deacon no!” Sledge chided as he picked him up. “Spit it out!”

The fire ferret promptly spit out the terrified little critter at Sledge’s feet. He had picked it up, thinking it was only a little gerbil but his eyes nearly bugged out of his head when he realized what Deacon had grabbed ahold of. It was a lemur! A baby winged lemur that fit perfectly in the palm of his hand, his bat ears lowering to the back of his head in fear while he stared at Sledge with large, emerald green eyes.

“Oh now where’d you come from?” he cooed to the little creature who hugged his thumb with his tiny arms and curled his tail around Sledge’s boney wrist.

“Hey,” someone said. “Hey have you seen a baby lemur anywhere? My friend Tipper’s lost one.”

“Is this him?”

The baby lemur leapt from Sledge’s hand and onto the shoulder of the other young man. “Sorry if Deacon did any damage,” Sledge apologized. “He doesn’t know any better.”

“Well, as long as he didn’t draw blood I guess we’ll be fine,” the young man said. “Hey aren’t you the one everybody calls ‘Sledgehammer?’”

“Huh? Oh,” Eugene said. “Yeah, that’s uh….that’s just my nickname. Real name’s Eugene. Eugene Sledge.”

“Richard Winters,” Dick said, shaking the young earthbender’s hand.

“You from around here?”

“Up near Wulong,” Dick answered. “I’m here with a few friends.”

“Really?” Sledge said. “Ya’ll wanna come and join us? We’re at a hawker place down the street from here.”

“Uh…..sure, why not?” Dick stammered.

He followed Sledge back to the place, relieved to find that the rest of the group was already there. The owner of the place was surprised to find so many benders in one place, all of them from across the four nations of the known world. Even the group of firebenders that had been at the contest had shown up, much to their surprise.

“Hey Dick!” Nix called to him from one of the tables. “Dick come on over, I found someone I want you to meet.”

Across from Nixon, sitting cross legged on the tatami mats like the rest of them, was a well-tanned youth with swags of tar-black hair that fell across his forehead in short wisps. “You Winters?” he asked.

“Yeah and you?”

“John Basilone,” the young man said.

“You from around these parts?” Dick enquired.

“Nah,” John replied. “Fire nation.”

_Oh now this is a first……._ he thought. “What made you come here?”

John’s expression turned melancholy and his eyes trailed to the table’s edge. “It’s not something I like to talk about,” he said. “Still kind of painful.”

Dick didn’t ask any further questions. _Probably something God awful…..no use in rehashing something that’ll cause you pain later……_

Pak, the baby lemur, jumped from Dick’s shoulder and ran to Tipper who sat with Liebgott and two other firebenders at another table, curling right up in his lap with his twin. “Winged lemurs,” John remarked. “Haven’t seen one of those in a long time.”

“They’re not really around these parts,” Dick said with a shrug. “So I take it you guys are staying somewhere here in the Earth Kingdom?”

“We got here about two days ago,” John answered as he helped himself to one of the leftover pork buns. “Place we’ve been staying at is a total dump. Every time I look under the steps I see an elephant rat running for the gutters.”

“No kidding,” Dick chuckled.

“Do I look like I’m kidding?” John retorted. “I swear, these people who last lived in the house were fuckin gross.”

Dick laughed a little, but he could easily empathize. Nobody should have had to live in the poor district, but like John and his cohorts, it was the best option they had. 


	6. The Triad of Trouble

The house waiter brought out several more dishes for the patrons and everyone ate their fill of whatever they pleased. When everyone was full, they paid their tabs and left for the evening. Dick and Nixon however, were joined by their newfound companion.

“So you’re Fire Nation huh?” Dick asked John as they walked along the lantern-lit streets.

“Through and through,” John replied. “Went to the firebending academy and everything.”

“How was it?” Nix asked him.

“Not bad,” John said with a shrug. “Every morning before lessons we’d go outside and do bending exercises in the yard. Coach Puller told my Pops that I was so good that by the time we graduated high school I could burn the eyebrows off a flea.”

Dick and Nix laughed, trying to picture it in their heads but their laughter was cut off by shouting coming from a nearby streetcorner. “The hell’s going on?” John wondered.

“I don’t know,” Dick answered. “C’mon, let’s go find out.”

John, Dick and Nix followed the excited shouts until at last they saw a crowd that had gathered in one of the market courtyards. A man stood at the top of a platform in the center of the square, his grey and brown robes typical of an Earth Kingdom peasant. But there was something else there. Something else in this man’s charismatic eyes and features that people took to instantly.

“People of Gaoling,” the man announced. “We have entered a new era. An era where peace and prosperity reign supreme……and where all are truly created equal.”

The crowd applauded at the man’s words. Dick, Nix and John hid quietly, making sure they were out of sight, wanting to know what it was this man was up to.

“For far too long we have lived under the tyranny of benders,” the man stated. “We have, in every sense of the word, bent to their will. We have remained submissive for centuries under their power and for what? So that they could treat non-benders like the dirt they trod on! My friends I implore you, join us and you will never suffer under the yoke of tyranny ever again!!”

The crowd cheered louder than before, but for the sneaky trio something really wasn’t sitting right. Their dinner turned over in their stomachs as a nervous heat made them flush. “I’ve got a bad feeling about these guys,” Nixon said.

“They can put us down and drag our names through the mud,” the man thundered. “But tonight we shall make an example of those who would dare to claim superiority!”

The trio watched as four women were brought out onto the platform, young and beautiful but terrorstruck. One of them held a small infant in her arms, her protective embrace being the only thing standing between her captors and her child.

“What the hell are they doing?” Nix questioned fearfully.

Dick and John didn’t answer. They watched the shocking scene unfolding before their very eyes as three other men stripped and tore their clothing, the crowd shouting obscenities and spitting on the ground as the women were humiliated. Their hair was cut off in large handfuls, their cries and pleas going unheeded by anyone there. The infant in the youngest woman’s arms began to cry and scream, cutting right to the core of the three who hid from the crowd.

“Please!” one of the women begged. “Please stop!”

“You’ve had your time in power,” the man sneered. “You and your filthy bending husbands. We’ll be doing the world a huge favor once we are done with the likes of you!”

A huge rock hurled into the wall of the building nearby and landed with a loud *BANG!* that startled the crowd, the women and their captors. “That’s enough!” Dick shouted angrily.

“Oh look here now boys,” he chortled evilly. “Seems we’ve got another one. This night couldn’t get any better.”

“You let them go now or I’ll bury every last one of you alive,” Dick sneered.

The man laughed insidiously and a terrifying glint flashed in his eyes. “As I’ve said,” he told Dick. “The time of the benders is over. Now is the era of The Equalists……and there is nothing that any of you will be able to do to stop us.”

“You want to try me?” Dick retorted.

“I’d be delighted.”

The man lunged right for Dick, Nix and John, but Dick quickly made his move and shot a rough rock straight up from the earth. The man was thrown at least ten feet in the air before he landed on the roof, rolling down the swallow-tailed edges and landing on the cobbled ground in a heap. He rose to his feet, racing towards the trio with rage flaring in his blood. Dick and Nix summoned a wall of earth and pushed it straight towards him, slamming the deranged man right into the dead end wall of the alley.

The unruly crowd tried to close in on John, but his lightning fast reflexes kicked in with perfect timing. He let loose curling bands of flame just inches above their heads, devilishly hot and bloody red. Sparks and embers rained down close to their feet as they screamed and jumped back out of the way to avoid being hit.

“Get back!” John shouted. “Get the fuck back! All of you!”

Someone in the crowd rushed into the middle of the ring to try and fight him, but John swung his leg right behind the man’s ankles, hooking him in and dragging him to the ground where he landed with a loud *THUD!*. Another one tried to come at him, not noticing the arcs of fire that John stirred up. The blast of heat and bright light threw him back as the flames flew close to his face, roaring with a frightening *WOOSH!* as they disappeared into thin air.

The crowd scattered as people fled the scene, frightened by what they had just witnessed and terrified of the boys. Everyone had fled, save for the four men who were now incapacitated by the earth traps Dick and Nix had summoned to hold them, but the women remained until the authorities showed up to the scene.

“And I suppose you’re the young men who witnessed all of this?” the green robed guard asked.

“Yes sir,” Dick replied.

“Well it’s certainly a good thing that you were here,” the guard remarked. “These women would have had their bending forcibly removed and worse if you weren’t.”

Dick shuddered to think on the matter. “Who were these people anyways?” he asked

“The men or the women?”

“Both.”

“The women are the wives of well known benders here in Gaoling,” the guard explained. “The men on the other hand are part of a repugnant group whose ideology should have been wiped off the earth a long time ago.”

”Dai Li?” Dick enquired.

“Oh heavens no!” the guard chuckled. “These gutter rats are far less sophisticated in their tactics than the Dai Li. No I’m afraid these people are Equalists.”

Equalists……yes, the leader had said something about the “era of the Equalists” in his sadistic rantings. “Equalists?”

“Oh yes,” the guard said with a poisonous insult waiting on the tip of his tongue. “People who promise a life of equality and freedom for all when in reality, they’re just as prejudiced and hypocritical as the Upper Ring elite.”

Dick had been familiar with types like that before. Some of them had come out of the farm country, others out of the Lower Ring in Ba Sing Se, but to him they were all the same……people who didn’t want to work for a damn thing in their lives and always expected things to be given to them on a whim. At least these four would be off the streets, never to make trouble again.

“Anyhow,” the guard said. “Thank you boys for helping to take care of the problem before it had gotten any worse. I shudder to think of what could have happened to those women had you not stepped in.”

“Just doing what we had to do sir,” John replied. “No big deal.”

“Well for the women’s families I’m sure it will be,” the guard said, climbing into the front seat of the prison wagon. “You take care of yourselves and don’t get into any trouble now.”

“No guarantees on that one,” Nix chuckled.

The head guard clicked his tongue and the ostrich-horse began pulling the wagon down the street, heading for the local prison with their newest inmates in tow. The trio watched until they disappeared from sight, heading off down the street that would take them back to the house.

“Man can you believe those guys?” John remarked. “All that bullshit about benders being the source of the world’s problems?”

“There’s one in every town John,” Dick told him. “It’s not the people themselves you have to really worry about. It’s the ideology.”

John began to wonder if Dick was right. After the event they had witnessed that night, all three of them had decided that they had to tread carefully


	7. One Stray More

All was as quiet as could possibly be in that run down little house in Gaoling, the merry band of misfits all sleeping on the tatami mats that had been spread across the freshly swept floors. Not a sound was no be heard, no snores, no fidgeting and not a single sleepy mutter. It was so quiet that the occupants could have heard the mice squeaking in the kitchen.

*CLINK!*

No one awoke.

*CLINK!*

Still, not a soul awoke.

* **BAM!!!***

“Woah!”

“What the fuck!”

“The hell just happened?!”

Everyone jumped at the sound of something hard and heavy crashing through the wall. Stone and mortar dust filled the air as chunks fell from the ceiling, sending a few into a coughing fit while the blinding sun peered in through the huge hole.

“Oh jeez,” Dick groaned, rubbing both the grog and the dust from his eyes. “Tip? Can you uh…..”

“I’m on it,” Tipper replied.

With a wave of his hands, Tipper sent a cool breeze throughout the room, the silvery ribbon of air pushing the dust out into the streets. Dick peered out the hole to find not one, not two, but several familiar figures standing outside the house.

“Oh great,” he muttered. “That’s just great.”

“What?” Nix asked. “What is it?”

“Look.”

Nix peered out the hole to find Lipton and the rest of the King Company team standing in the street below, their bags slung over their shoulders and waving to Dick and Nix. Sledge however was nowhere to be found.

“Nope,” Nix said.

“Nix c’mon, they’ve got nowhere to go,” Dick told him.

“Nope!”

“Nix…….”

“No, no, no,” Nix argued. “And definitely NO!!”

“They’ve probably been kicked out,” Dick told him.

“I……no really?” Nix said, his voice laced with sarcasm. “I wonder why.”

“Nix,” Dick said. “Come on, a few more couldn’t hurt.”

“You know, you sound like a crazy cat lady,” Nix told him. “ _Just one more won’t hurt….._ and then what happens? We’ve got a whole house full of strays.”

Dick didn’t say a word. There was a long, dragging silence between the two of them before Dick finally decided to speak up. “Are you done?” he asked, a smile playing with the corners of his mouth.

“Yeah I think I’m done,” Nix replied. “For now.”

_And until then may the spirits grant me patience….._ Dick thought.

Never before had the house been so crowded with barely enough room in the upstairs bedrooms for the extra tatami mats. There was still alot of work to be done, clearing out dust, debris and broken furniture from the last occupants. Bull and Lip had offered to fix the hole in the wall, patching and reinforcing it as best they could with limited resources. Tatum, Leckie and Liebgott spent the better part of the morning, trying to bend out the fresh water from the pollutants but with the help of their newfound housemates, the job was made a bit easier. But by late afternoon, they had realized the stores had run down to the bare minimum.

“Rice is almost gone,” Tipper said, noting the last few grains at the bottom of the basket.

“Yeah,” Hoosier noted. “We’re running out of everything.”

Leckie took one look around the kitchen at the empty baskets, jars and boxes and saw to his dismay that every last one was empty. There was no way they could go on like this, scraping by for food or running up an unpaid tap at the hawker places. Once had been fine, but there was no way he’d let himself or anybody else do it again.

“Here,” he said. “We’ll just have to make a run to the market and see what we can dig up. It might not be much but it’s all we can do at this point.”

Tipper and Hoosier went and gathered what few yuans they had saved from the box under the hearthstone and pocketed them in a drawstring pouch for later. Chuckler had begged to tag along with Sid following closely behind as they left the house and headed out into the markets.

The market square was as busy as ever with so many people coming and going that they had to shoulder past people to get to the stalls selling rice, vegetables, meat and other foods. He couldn’t believe some of the things that were for sale in the artisans’ stalls, gold amphorae, jars made from marble, statuettes made of jade and incense holders made to look like dragons or badgermoles. He wanted desperately to buy the two little jade lion-turtle statues, but the shortage of yuans wouldn’t allow it.

_As soon as I get the chance I’m gonna see about a job….._ he thought. _I know it won’t pay much in a place like this, but we’re getting desperate……_

Leckie made his way to the vegetable seller to bargain for some daikon radish when three familiar voices caught his attention.

“Jeez John you sound like you’re my fuckin wife.”

“Do I now?”

“A little bit.”

_The hell’s golden boy Basilone doing in a place like this….?_ Leckie wondered. _I thought his family was Fire Nation Royalty or something like that…..?_

Leckie was perturbed to see the three young men walking up the streets in their worn out, raggedy reds and blacks. How was it that they had come from Fire Nation nobility and yet had sunk to the level of street paupers? _Maybe they’ve been through what we’ve been through……_ he thought. _Maybe worse….._

“Hey,” Leckie said when they came his way.

“Hey,” John replied. “What are you doing here?”

“Just came to get supplies for dinner,” Leckie answered, half lying through his teeth.

“Mind if we pitch in?” John asked him. “We’ve gotta get some stuff anyways.”

“No, not at all.”

John laid out the three yuans in his pocket, but Leckie was once again surprised that it hadn’t bought them much., just a few beans, a handful of lentils and a few packets of dried seaweed. “Keep the change,” John told the seller.

Leckie felt a deep sense of pity setting in. “You guys down to your last scrapes too?” he asked.

John nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “You guys too?”

Leckie nodded.

“Where’d you come from?” John asked. “North or south?”

Leckie was confused, but after a look at the dark blue tunic he wore he knew what John was asking. “South,” he replied. “Southern Water Tribe. You?”

“Ember Island,” John replied. “Fire Nation born and raised.”

“Let me guess,” Leckie said with a chuckle. “Clan Basilone?”

“You guessed it,” John said. “Probably thought we’d have a little bit more in our pockets too huh?”

“Nah,” Leckie replied. “I don’t really like to think that way but….”

“Hey you can’t help it,” John told him. “We’re in the same boat too. Fled the Fire Nation with almost nothing. We’re at a point where we’re gonna have to pawn off our valuables if we can’t find work.”

Now Leckie felt really bad. “Sorry to hear that,” he said. “If you guys need anything we can try to help.”

“It’s all good, you don’t have to,” John told him. “We’re not looking to be charity cases here.”

“Alright,” Leckie said. “Offer’s still on the table if you want it.”

All of a sudden there was a commotion as people began moving to the sides of the streets. A group of palanquin bearers began moving through the streets, carrying the heavy litter on their shoulders. A beautiful lady sat perched inside, her hair impeccably done up and her hanfu made from the best cream colored silk money could buy.

“Damn,” John remarked. “Can’t imagine what it must be like to live that kind of life every day.”

“I thought your family…..”

“Oh hell no,” John chuckled. “My family does ok, but that’s nothing compared to the Earth Kingdom elite. These guys make the Fire Lords’ wealth look like lunch money.”

The palanquin bearers carried the noblewoman safely over the dirty cobbled streets while the guards behind her pushed and shoved people out of the way, to keep them from getting too close. “Think we should follow them?” he asked John.

“Why the hell not?”

Leckie wrangled the other three together, following John and his two friends, JP and Manny, as they headed in the direction of the procession. When they stopped in front of a merchant’s stall, they saw the woman emerging from her litter to speak with the merchant.

“I trust everything is in order my good sir?” she questioned, her voice sharp and demanding.

“Y….yes my lady,” the merchant stammered. “Everything is in order.”

“Then why haven’t I been given what is due to me?”

“I’m sorry?”

“I specifically stated that my demands were to be met by this afternoon!”

What the hell was wrong with this woman? The poor shopkeeper was only trying to do his job and here she was acting high and mighty as though she owned him and everyone in Gaoling. _Well Miss High Hips……_ Leckie sneered. _We’ll see who owns everyone and everything now won’t we….._

“C’mon we’d better get outta here,” Manny said.

“Nope,” Leckie said, stopping him with his foot. “I say that Madame High Hips over there needs to be taught a bit of a lesson.”

None of them had the faintest idea of what Leckie was getting himself into but they knew it probably wouldn’t end well. “Hey Tip?”

“Yeah?”

“Did Pik and Pak follow you out of the house?”

Tipper didn’t even have to answer. The two little lemurs came skittering out of the pocket of Tipper’s brown wrap robe, their eyes wide and eager to be fed. _Perfect….._ Leckie thought as an evil grin crawled across his face.

“Leckie?” Tipper asked nervously. “Leckie, what are you thinking?”

“Oh nothing,” Leckie replied. “Just an idea, that’s all.”

The group followed the procession further down the street, the guards and servants straining as they carried the stock that had been seized from the shop. When they finally reached a large building on the nearby streetcorner, they saw their opportunity.

“Alright little peanuts,” he said to Pik and Pak. “Go get’em.”

John and Leckie took a handful of the beans and tossed them into the streets below, startling the lady and the litter-bearers as Pik and Pak went berserk, picking up the beans and eating them whole. They squeaked, chirped and chittered as they jumped around on their springy little feet, the woman shrieking as the guards and servants tried to catch them.

“That’s our cue, lets go,” Leckie announced.

“Stay low, get greedy,” Manny laughed.

Off they went to the storehouse, hurrying through the doors that had been left ajar by the servants. What a sight! None of them could believe the hoard that had been left in this place! Baskets full of fresh fruit, vegetables, straw baskets brimming over with every kind of rice, meat wrapped in brown butcher paper, cases of spices, silk and material for clothing, jewelry, tobacco and other valuables that had been emptied from merchant stalls, draining them of their profits. Not everyone in the Earth Kingdom was as cruel as that, but for those that were, there would surely be a valuable lesson taught to them.

“Come on, come on,” John urged. “Let’s get the goods while we can.”

They broke open crates and put whatever they could into burlap bags and sacks, only taking the smallest boxes or things that could be carried. John, JP and Manny had the time of their lives sifting through the valuables for things they could sell later or return to the sellers. “Come on guys, hurry!” John told them. “We don’t have a lot of time left, let’s move!”

They kept tossing whatever they could into the bags that would be needed later, material for clothing, food, raw cotton and anything else that might be of use to them in the future, but when Leckie broke the lock on one of the crates, he went bug eyed when he saw the contents…..cigars, jars full of dried and preserved fruit, a large box of fat cigars and pair after pair of men’s shoes. _Fuck it…._ he thought, quickly shoving the items into the sack. 

“Come on JP, let’s move it,” Manny said, hurriedly shoving jars of herbs into his bag. “Come on, they’ll be back any second.”

“JP make sure you get those cherries!” John told him.

“I got the cherries!” JP cackled.

“Guys!” Leckie announced happily. “Guys look what I found! Crackers!”

All of them were elated that they had found a huge crated box full of crackers that would last them for months. But their victory was short lived when the celebratory air was suddenly broken at the sound of men shouting.

“You there! Halt! Stop! Put those things back!”

“Shit!”

“Damnit!”

“Let’s go guys!” John called.

They scrambled out the doors and into the streets, running for dear life with their heavy haul in tow and the guards hot at their heels. Pik and Pak weren’t far behind as they leapt onto Tipper’s shoulders and covered their faces with their paws.

“Get back here you wretched urchins!” the captain shouted.

None of the boys heeded his words. They just kept running, their ten foot bounding strides bringing them through the maze of alleys, side streets and across busy crossways. Their joyous hoots and hollers roused even the most bored of shopkeepers and apprentices, the guards chasing them but to no avail. One of them had tried to chase Tipper into a corner, but the young airbender sent a blast of air straight at them, pushing them into the wall and knocking them about until they were left rattled by the impact. When they regained their senses, they no longer saw them. The miscreants were gone and with them, so too was most of their cache.

Leckie and the others were absolutely HOWLING with laughter when they had finally lost the guards and had returned to the house. They must have grabbed enough food and supplies to last them for months.

“Man did you guys see the look on that guy’s face when Pik and Pak went at those beans?” Leckie laughed.

“Worth it,” Chuckler said.

“Hopefully now we’ll be able to make this shit last,” John said. “It could be months before we’re able to get anything again.”

“But tonight we feast like fuckin kings,” JP joked.

Leckie led them through the back door and into the kitchen where several others had been waiting for them. “You guys get what we needed?” Malarkey asked.

“And more,” Leckie said, turning the bag over and spilling the contents onto the stone counter.

None of them had expected to see as much food as they had. Meat, vegetables, jade rice, white rice, grains, greens and everything in between. Malarkey, Perconte, Guarnere and Bull quickly got to cooking the night’s meal while the others stowed away the stores for later. When dinner was ready and the first round of dishes cleared away, everyone gathered in the other room to dig in.

“Hey! Save a few oranges for me will you?” Sid told Chuckler, Runner and the others as they made a grab for the oranges.

Everyone passed along the plates and took whatever they wanted, finally happy to have had some real food for once. It may not have come to them by the most scrupulous means, but all of them were grateful to have had it. Yet when Dick looked around, he saw that one place amongst the chatty crowd was still empty.

“Anybody seen sight of Sledge?” he asked.

“Haven’t seen head or tail of him,” Johnny Martin spoke up as he picked apart a piece of crispy seaweed with his chopsticks.

“He ain’t written us a note in two days,” Bull said. “Last I heard he was called home for something or other.”

“I hope he turns up soon,” Shifty remarked. “We’ve got three days left until the next tournament and I don’t want him to miss it.”

Dick was still bemused and uneasy about what could have happened to Sledge. He tried to put it all out of his mind, but it wasn’t much use. _I think it’s time that we pay a visit to him and his family……_ Dick thought. _Just to see if he’s ok……_


	8. The Boy and the Badgermoles

_Keep your feet rooted……_

_Mind focused……_

_To feel in the earth is to see with your second sight….._

_Stay steady and your enemy can never hurt you….._

Blindfolded with the cool air whiffling through the threads of his clothes, Eugene kept his feet firmly on the ground, elbows bent and his fists together as he felt the movements beneath his feet, some slight and others so heavy he could have felt them without the blindfold covering his eyes. Deacon chittered and brushed against his leg with his bushy tail but Eugene had to hold still. This wasn’t just a lesson in earthbending. This was a lesson in patience as well.

“Keep still,” a man’s gravel voice told him. “The more firmly you keep your feet in the dirt, the easier it’ll be to master.”

Eugene breathed deeply, holding still with no other sound reaching his ears save for the offbeat rhythm of his heart. That damn murmur had been the one thing that his mother had used as an excuse for his teachers to keep him at the beginner level when he was a child. But oh if only she could see him now……both him and the new teacher he had acquired in the last twelve years.

_Keep still….._ Gene told himself. _Even if one of the baby moles comes out and starts sniffing your feet, keep still……the slightest movement and he’ll throw a huge boulder right for your head……_

“Ready?”

Gene gave him a nod.

“HIT IT!!!!”

Eugene threw his arms out and sent his fists slamming into the rocks. The walls of the cave shook with a frightening force, dirt and pebbles falling from the cave ceilings like rain. He raised his foot and sent it crashing right into the earth, the ground rising in a dull wave that sent his teacher falling right back as the ground rumbled beneath him.

“Holy shit!” the man exclaimed when the earth had stopped shaking. “You’re way better than the last students I had.”

Eugene quickly removed his blindfold and shook off the blinding feeling as the dull light in the caves entered his eyes. “How’d I do Gunny?”

“Better,” Gunny Haney replied. “That’s some pretty advanced stuff if I’ve ever seen it.”

“Guess I learned from the best,” Gene remarked.

“Best is an understatement,” Haney replied. “You think I’m gonna sit around all day and watch those so-called masters keep a kid like you at the beginner level? Fuck no. You’ve got a brain in that skull of yours, you might as well use it.”

Eugene laughed. He should have expected something like that to have come out of Haney’s mouth. An earthbender through and through, Haney was _not_ looked kindly upon at all by the citizens of Gaoling. Hard headed and stubborn as hell with a poisonous attitude, Haney had been nicknamed “Gunny” after his time as a sergeant in the Earth Kingdom Army, drilling his troops the same way he had drilled Eugene and the rest of the Earth Rumble team. Despite all the hard curses and drilling, Gene was grateful to have had Haney as a teacher. He had been the only one to understand what Eugene was truly capable of.

“Should we keep going?” he asked.

“I think I’ve busted your balls enough today,” Gunny replied. “We’ll start on something else tomorrow.”

“Thanks Gunny,” Eugene replied.

Eugene suddenly felt something warm blow onto the back of his neck and when he turned around there was Hachi, the leader of a pack of badgermoles who dwelled deep in the caves. The runt in a litter of eight, Hachi had grown to be the biggest badgermole in the cave, the dominating leader in the pack that Gunny himself had personally raised.

“What you didn’t think I’d leave without saying goodbye, did you?” Gene chuckled as he scratched the huge beast’s snout.

Hachi grumbled and rolled over onto his back like a dog. Gene gave him one last scratch on his side before the badgermole rolled over again and sauntered back down the tunnel.

“You think they’ll ever be able to see?” Gene asked.

“The moles?”

“No.”

Gunny thought for a brief moment, wondering the same thing. “It’s hard to tell,” he said. “When you’ve been around for as long as I have, it’s hard for people to change their way of thinking.”

Eugene felt a sad heaviness setting in. He too wondered if his parents would ever be able to stop thinking of him as a helpless little boy with a heart murmur and see him for who he really was……a capable young man who could take care of and defend himself if the need arose.

“Maybe you’re right,” Eugene said. “But I worry.”

“Why should you worry?” Haney questioned. “You’re a quick learner.”

“I worry that they’ll never understand,” Eugene told him. “They think I’m completely helpless.”

“Well you’re not,” Gunny told him. “You’ve learned shit most kids don’t learn until they’re thirty.”

A small smile broke out on Eugene’s face. He was proud of everything he had learned and had earned Haney’s pride in return. Regardless of what his parents thought, he would continue to master earthbending……even if it killed him.

“Crap,” he hissed when he saw the late afternoon sun beginning to go down. “I’ve gotta get home. Mother and Dad think I’m wandering out in the woods.”

“Get your ass home then,” Haney ordered. “We’ll meet again tomorrow. Same time, same place.”

“You’ve got it Gunny,” Eugene said, quickly gathering up his things before leaving the cave. “And thanks again.”

“Anytime kid!” Haney called after him.

Eugene dashed down the path that wended out of the cave, hurrying along the road that would eventually lead through the woods and back to his family’s estate. Deacon raced beside him as the two hurried down the path, heading for home in the hopes that Eugene’s family wouldn’t suspect where he had been. When he felt a tightness in his chest, Gene knew it was time to quit running.

“C’mon Deacon,” he said.

The little fire ferret ran up beside his master and jumped onto his shoulder before Gene called up a wave of earth. The ground rose and fell beneath his feet, rising and falling like the ocean as it carried the two home towards the Sledge estate. Never had Eugene felt so exhilarated and free as he surfed along the earth wave with Deacon on his shoulder. There was no one to chide or chastise him for being reckless, no one to shriek when he did something unsafe and no one to tattle on him to his parents.

When at last he reached the walls of the family estate, the earth went flat and Eugene jumped to the ground, hurrying through the back gate to avoid any of the house servants finding him. Quickly he dusted himself off and took a seat on one of the flat topped rocks and sticking his feet in the water before pulling out a copy of _The Poems of Laghima_ and pretending to be absorbed in the book.

_Thank God no one knew I was gone….._ he thought with relief. _Edward would’ve tattled on me like a five year old if he knew….._

He spotted one of the servants traipsing into the garden, his robes of the best green and gold material that money could afford while his stiff demeanor gave Eugene the impression that tonight was going to be one of those nights.

“Master Eugene, your mother wishes me to inform you that dinner is being served,” the man said with a bow.

Eugene didn’t say anything to the man and instead gave him nothing more than a curt nod. _Oh yeah….._ he thought. _Definitely gonna be one of those nights……_

“Your mother also bids me to tell you that it would also be best if you…..clean up a bit as well.”

“Yes Lao, thank you,” Eugene said curtly. “I’ll make note of it.”

Eugene began making his way into the main house but Lao walked the whole way beside him. Outwardly, Eugene remained calm but inside he was seething. Why couldn’t Lao or any of the other servants go and bother someone else for a change? Why did they always have to follow _him_?

Reluctantly, Eugene went to his room and switched out his clothes for a fresh set. _They’d better be pleased otherwise Edward will find beetle worms in his chicken……_

When he had at last cleaned up, Lao escorted Eugene down to the dining hall where the family had gathered, but when he saw some of the familiar faces around the table, his heart jumped with excitement.

“Well we certainly appreciate the visit Lewis,” Eugene’s mother said to the dark haired man sitting next to her. “My best regards to your family.”

“Thank you Mrs. Sledge,” Nix answered. “I’ll let them know.”

Eugene couldn’t believe it! The friends he had made that night at the hawker place had the gall to show up at the house, but how?!

_“What are you guys doing here?”_ he mouthed silently.

_“We came to see you,”_ Nix replied back, his lips moving without a sound escaping from his mouth.

Eugene was dumbfounded yet glad that Nix and the others with him had the gumption to drop by. Lao pulled out his chair and he sat beside his father as Edward passed around the rice and a plate of hibiscus root salad.

“Well now Lewis,” Eugene’s father remarked. “I hear you all have come a long way from home.”

“A long way’s a bit of an understatement sir,” Nixon replied politely. “We’ve only been in Gaoling for about three weeks at most.”

Their chatter continued on, but neither his parents nor Edward asked Eugene about anything. He hated when this happened more than anything. He didn’t despise the dinner guests……just when his family seemed to pretend that he wasn’t there.

A servant brought out a plate of roast duck, serving each person sitting at the table with Eugene being the last. He had forgotten how hungry he had been until he caught a whiff of the steaming dish and all the herbs and seasonings that had been used to cook it to absolute perfection. Eugene had been about to help himself when his mother suddenly interrupted.

“Blow on it, it’s too hot for him.”

Eugene turned bright red with embarrassment, a hot flash running through his cheeks. _Here we go again……_ he thought.

Lao would have done as he was bidden, but Dick was too quick for the head servant. When he was sure that Eugene’s parents weren’t looking, he sent a small gust of air spiraling towards Eugene. Despite the help, Eugene’s embarrassment didn’t ebb away easily.

“Now then,” Eugene’s father said. “It is my understanding that you and your friends are in search of an earthbending teacher, correct?”

“Yes sir,” Dick replied. “I never was able to fully master the skill and wondered if you knew of a teacher who would be able to help.”

“Well,” Eugene’s mother said. “I believe that our head servant, Lao, is a most excellent teacher. He might be able to help you if you’ll let him.”

Eugene tried his best to stuff down his annoyance but his quick eyes suddenly shot up from his dinner plate and saw one of the kitchen girls tripping and stumbling on the hem of her green wrap dress. Eugene placed his feet flat against the floor, pushing her upright with his left and dragging Dick’s chair closer to the table with his right. The food couldn’t be saved, but thankfully nothing embarrassing had happened to any of the dinner guests.

Mary Frank, his mother, shot Eugene a puzzled look but Eugene simply shrugged it off as if he hadn’t noticed anything.

“As I was saying,” she continued. “Master Lao, our head servant, is very well versed in earthbending. He’s been teaching Eugene since he was little.”

“Then your son must be a great earthbender then?” Dick remarked. “Probably good enough to teach someone else?”

“Oh heavens no!” Mary Frank replied. “He’s still learning the basics and because of his heart murmur I don’t think he’ll ever achieve mastery.”

Dick saw the annoyed glint in Eugene’s hazel eyes, burning like white-hot fire. Now he had understood everything that Sid had told him before they came here. But why didn’t the kid stick up for himself? Maybe there was some other factor at play here that he had yet to understand.

“Well ma’am,” Nix said. “I’m sure that even the things that start out fragile can grow into something tough.”

Eugene looked his way as an unnoticeable smirk crawled across his face. Nix gave him a reassuring wink and said nothing more. _Damn right…._ Eugene thought. _I’m one of the greatest earthbenders in the world……and nobody will ever forget that……_


	9. Night Shadows

Out back to light the lamps for the night and back in again……the only time Eugene could ever do anything for himself on the family property.

Edward never would have taken it upon himself to do something like this. He was far too busy with other matters, training for his recruitment into the Earth Kingdom Armies. Oh if only Eugene could have joined. He’d have given anything to be able to prove himself the way his brother did.

Through the garden and to the little shrine at the very back he went, the fireflies flickering on the surface of the ponds while the lotus blooms released their heady scent into the air. The little red shrine at the back was full of statues in the little niches and the remains of burnt joss sticks with dusty ashes and half melted candles dripping from the edges. He loved coming here, but Eugene couldn’t help but shake his head. Some families in the Earth Kingdom and in the Fire Nation couldn’t afford more than a few sticks and stones on the side of the roads.

Eugene lit a fresh set of joss sticks and placed them in the holders before lighting the lamps that hung from the ceiling. The heavy trails of nag champa coiled into the air like grey snakes, burning away any unwanted energies that would have otherwise invited dark spirits.

“You come out here often?”

Eugene jumped when he heard the voice behind him. But thankfully it was only Dick.

“I try,” he said. “It’s hard when your parents are watching every little thing you’re doing.”

“I figured that much,” Dick told him. “Judging by the way your mom sounded at the dinner table.”

Eugene gave a hollow laugh. “You don’t know the half of it.”

Dick didn’t even have to guess. Eugene’s laugh had said enough. He couldn’t imagine being trapped in a place like this by the people who were supposed to protect you and care for you. He had been lucky.

“Listen Eugene,” Dick said. “If you want to come with us, you’re welcome to.”

Eugene shook his head. “I don’t think you need any more strays in your group,” he replied.

“We’re used to it,” Dick told him. “I was once a stray myself.”

“You know my parents,” he sighed. “They’ll never let me go. They think I’m completely helpless because of this damn heart murmur I had as a kid.”

“Oh?”

“It’s not something I like to talk about,” Eugene said as he stuck another joss stick in the niche containing the small statue of Avatar Kyoshi.

Dick didn’t ask any further questions. It wasn’t his business nor was it his place to ask. “Well,” he said. “Just know that if you change your mind…..”

“Shh!” Eugene interrupted. “Stay quiet for a second.”

There was no sound but the rustling of the trees and the singing of the night creatures. A chill coiled in the air, enveloping the two young men in its icy touch. The flickering little flames in the lamps suddenly blew out, leaving them in the dusky darkness.

“Gene,” Dick whispered. “What is it?”

Eugene listened intently, first with his ears and then with his second sense. He planted his feet firmly on the ground, feeling every vibration that ran and buzzed across the soles of his feet. Something lurked around the walls that shouldn’t have been there.

“Come on out and face us you son of a bitch,” he hissed under his breath.

Dick felt a shiver running up his back and pricking his skin. This didn’t feel like a stray badgermole or some other creature of the Earth Kingdom. This felt unnatural, something that was not of their world at all……something dark and foreboding. The two tiptoed out of the shrine, their eyes going haywire as they looked around for the source of the disturbance. They could hear faint scratching against the garden walls as the unseen foe climbed its way up to the edge.

_Behind you!!!!_ The little voice in Dick’s head screamed.

Both of them whipped around and blasted a chunk of the wall right to the ground, the stone crumbling and chinking as it fell to the grass. A black shrouded figure screamed and fell into the cloud of dust, staggering to its feet and lunging for the two.

Eugen quickly stamped up a rock pillar that shot up from the ground and tossed the hooded figure into the air. It slammed right back down to the ground again with a loud yelp but the two were relentless. Every time he got back up either Eugene or Dick hit him hard with rock pillars, boulders and large stones. Finally, when they had him right where they wanted him, Eugene clapped his hands together and a pair of rock slabs sprang from the earth in the blink of an eye, pinning the figure between them and leaving him a writhing, squirming mess.

“Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?!” Eugene demanded angrily.

“What’s it to you?” the hooded man retorted.

Dick threw back the black hood but to their shock, the man wore a mask that concealed his face, one half black and the other half white with swirls of grey around one edge. Eugene knew that mask. He knew it because Haney had encountered one in the deep forests of the Earth Kingdom. They had belonged to the night spirits, the snatchers of children and shadows that crept in the most haunted corners of the world…..the Kemurikage.

But this was no spirit.

“Dick?” Nix called. “Dick what the hell’s going on out here?”

“We’re fine Nix,” Dick said as his friend came racing out into the yard. “Just a nasty little sneak thief is all.”

Nix pulled the mask from the assailant’s face and saw that what lay beneath was only the face of an ordinary man, arrogant, petulant and full of annoyance at having been caught. “Hey,” Nix said, waving his hand in front of the man’s face to get his attention. “Hey dumbass, you do realize that a family of earthbenders live here right?”

“Those idiots didn’t tell me,” the man spat.

“Oh?” Nix said. “And who might these so called idiots be?”

“Nobody important that you need to know of.”

Nixon eyed him like a cat, his dark eyes trailing to the thin chain around his neck and the pendant that hung from it. _Well…..isn’t this a surprise…._ he thought when he saw the red circle inscribed with the character for “equality”.

“I thought I saw your filthy, dirty mug somewhere in the crowd,” Nix chuckled. “You’re the slimy little shit who humiliated those poor women a few nights ago.”

“They slept with the enemy!”

“What?” Nix chuckled hollowly. “You think that benders are the enemy of the world don’t you? You guys have something seriously wrong with you.”

The man writhed, wriggled and squirmed, his anger boiling as Nix poked and prodded him. The rushed footsteps of the house guards and the worried shouts of Eugene’s parents filled the air in the garden from the doorway.

“Lao, take Eugene back inside,” his mother ordered. “The rest of you arrest that man immediately!”

The guards did as they had been told and immediately sent the slabs sinking back into the ground before they arrested the man and took him away.

“Eugene,” his mother chided. “What in the name of all that is holy, did you think you were doing? You could have been killed!”

“Mom if ya’ll listen, I can explain.”

“What is there to explain?” Mary Frank questioned. “That man could have seriously injured you! You have no idea how to properly defend yourself.”

“Mrs. Sledge in his defense……”

“Richard,” Mary Frank said evenly. “I understand that you mean well. But Eugene is frail and hasn’t any idea how to defend himself.”

“Mom please,” Eugene said. “If you would just give me a minute…..”

Mary Frank looked at her son and then at Dick. “Fine,” she said stiffly. “You have _one_ minute.”

Eugene racked together what little courage he could muster. “Mom,” he began. “I know you think that I’m the frail, obedient little son you’ve always thought I was. But I’m not. I know forms of earthbending that not even Edward knows. If I could show you what I can do……then maybe you’ll see me in a different light.”

Mary Frank was reluctant but the nod of approval from his father was enough. “Nix?”

“You don’t even have to ask,” Nix chuckled.

Nix kicked up a rock and sent it sliding at full speed towards Eugene who kicked it full force with his heel and turned the rock to dust. Nix sent another and another hurtling right towards him but each time, Eugene was quick enough to break and shatter them before they had a chance to hit him. He turned his back for a brief second…..

“EUGENE!!!” his mother shouted.

Eugene spun around just in time, slamming his foot into the ground, before sending an explosive wave of energy directly into the boulder. Shards and splinters of stone rained down in the dust just inches from the veranda where his mother, father and brother all stood with gaping jaws and wide eyes. Dick and Nix high fived each other and congratulated Eugene, but the look on his mother’s face quickly silenced them.

“Now do you see?” Eugene said.

“Yes,” Mary Frank said. “I see. I see now that I’ve let you have too much freedom.”

“What?”

“From now on Eugene,” Mary Frank insisted. “You’ll be under constant watch, every hour of every day. No exceptions.”

Eugene couldn’t believe it! After all of that, he thought his family would look at him differently…..but they hadn’t. They still saw him just as they had before.

“Your friends are to leave the premises at once,” she insisted again. “And you are to go straight to bed young man.”

“But if you would…..”

“I know my place, Eugene Sledge!” she snapped. “It’s time you learned yours!”

Eugene felt his whole being crumpling up and growing smaller and smaller, even as he watched Dick and Nix being escorted off the property. An awful, burning fire boiled up in his chest as his family retreated inside, his hazel eyes beginning to well with tears.

“Son,” his father said.

Eugene turned to look at his father, doing everything in his power to control his anger.

His father’s face fell at the sight of his son’s. “Eugene I…..I’m sorry.”

He couldn’t even look his father in the face. Eugene turned and ran off into the shadows, leaving his father behind him.


	10. Eugene's Decision

“Well that’s just great,” Nix said as he and Dick hiked up the hill. “Poor kid’s trapped there for the rest of his existence and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

“Maybe not us,” Dick said. “But he certainly can.”

“Oh c’mon Dick,” Nix said. “Let’s be real here, if you were stuck in a place like that day after day you’d probably hope somebody comes and rescues your sorry butt soon enough.”

When they finally made it back to the hillside where Buck and Andy were waiting with one of the sky bison, the two were eager to hear of their little adventure. “How’d it go?” Buck asked.

“Terrible,” Dick replied. “Really, really awful if you want to be completely honest.”

“Can’t be any worse than most other days right?” Buck remarked.

Dick didn’t have an answer for him. A low roll of thunder in the distance caught their attention soon enough, distracting them from any other thoughts of the night’s events.

“Come on,” Dick said. “We’d better get home. It looks like it’s about to rain soon.”

The four of them climbed into the saddle on the back of Buck’s sky bison and were soon off, homeward bound and ready to forget their troubles.

The thunder boomed and the rain poured……but Eugene didn’t care.

He sat on the edge of the square plinth where the stone Kyoshi statue stood, tall, proud and stoic as though she herself were watching over Eugene, her eyes closed and her face serene and peaceful. Eugene didn’t care that his clothes had soaked through and that he would probably catch a cold or pneumonia. He was too upset to even think about it.

He looked to the brightly lit window of the house, his parents’ shadowy silhouettes moving about like the paper cutouts in the streetside puppet theaters. He couldn’t see the movement of their lips nor could he see the expressions on their faces, but he knew…..he _knew_ that they were talking about him.

_When….._ he thought. _When in the hell are they gonna understand and see me for who I really am….?_ He thought.

Eugene thought long and hard about what had transpired that night. He thought about his mother’s remarks, full of fear and terror at the thought of Eugene being his own person…..his own true self. He would be putting up with it for the rest of his life if he stayed.

Then there were Dick and Nix…..hell even his partners in crime on the Earth Rumble team. They had been the only other people to give a damn about him and what he wanted. They were the first and only friends he had ever truly known…..including Sid. But most of all he thought about what Dick had said earlier in the night.

_“Listen Eugene,” Dick said. “If you want to come with us, you’re welcome to.”_

_For shit’s sake……you’ve got friends who give a damn about you Gene…..THEY’RE your real family…..you belong with them…..not here….._

Eugene watched as the bright, yellow orange light suddenly went out in the window and a bedraggled Deacon jumped up beside him.

He had made up his mind.

Eugene jumped to his feet and hurried towards the shrine, lighting a single joss stick and placing it at the feet of the badgermole statue. He bowed to the statue, thanking the creature for having taught him all those years ago before he headed for the house. Deacon was hot at his heels as he rushed inside, tiptoeing quietly to his parents’ bedroom where they lay sound asleep; completely oblivious to the raging thunder outside and the flashes of white lightning.

Eugene removed the little gold gecko pin and placed it on the sidetable next to their bed with a rolled up scroll. He could only hope that they would understand why he had run away when they read it.

“Goodbye Mom......Dad,” he whispered.

He rushed to his room and hurriedly stuffed his clothes and a few supplies into a bag. Once he was set he hurried to the cupboard in the upstairs hallway where he had stowed away his Earth Rumble robes, those deep pine and sage greens he had sorely missed; short sleeved shirt, vest, pants, boots, fingerless gloves and finally the sage green sash that tied around his waist. He had been about to leave when Deacon had come skittering in, dragging something behind him.

Eugene was stunned. It was the sword his father had carried during the previous war. He didn’t want to take it…..and yet……yet he knew there were those who had immense power, even the power to take away another’s bending. He had to take it.

He drew the sharp blade from the scabbard, the blade a shining silver while the heads of a Pixiu on the guard end appeared to swallow the blade whole. He took one look at his reflection in the blade and for once did not see the boy his parents had always seen…..but the man he was slowly becoming. Eugene took the scabbard from Deacon’s jaws and thrust it back in, throwing it across his shoulders and hurrying away. “C’mon Deacon, let’s go,” he whispered.

The fire ferret followed his master out into the rain towards the garden wall. Eugene took one last look at that vast family manor. _This is it……there’s no going back now….._

Eugene waited for Deacon to climb onto his shoulder before he razed the earth beneath his feet, jumping right onto the slippery wall ledge. One more jump and he was over, the earth sinking into a deep hole before he bounced back up again with the ground rolling beneath his feet. Rock, stone, dirt and dust rumbled beneath his feet as Eugene skated his way across the ground.

Eugene was in disbelief. He was free! Free at last! Years of yearning for his freedom were finally his! Eugene let out a wild laugh, overcome with joy and elation at his newfound freedom.

“Hey!” A familiar voice called over the loud rumbling of the earth beneath his feet.

Eugene turned his head to the sky bison that flew close by. A large broad smile plastered itself across his face when he saw Dick, Nix, Haldane and Buck all in the saddle.

“You need a lift?!” Dick shouted.

Eugene had been about to answer when he felt the earth give beneath his feet. He tumbled to the ground with a yelp, rolling head over heels into the dirt. The others grimaced when they heard Eugene hit the dirt and the earth mound crumbling until the earth went flat again.

“Oooooh!”

“Ouch.”

“That one hurt him.”

“Oof, that’s gonna leave marks.”

Eugene picked himself up from the dirt and shook it off while Deacon squeaked and shook out his fur. Dick reached out his hand and hauled Eugene and the fire ferret into the saddle. “Welcome aboard Sledgehammer,” he said.

“Thanks Dick,” Eugene replied, grinning from ear to ear as they took off across the hills and back into town.


	11. Night Flight

Several days passed since Eugene had officially been brought into the fold but the rest of the group was amazed that this sheltered young man had been able to adapt as well as he had. Hardly anything went unnoticed whether it was a dirty piece of cookware, an out of place hearthstone or spilled grains of rice, Eugene was always sure to clean it up before it was left behind.

“How’s it feel being a part of a group again?” Burgie asked as they began rolling out their sleeping mats for the night.

“Better,” Eugene said. “Feels really good not to have to keep a secret all the time.”

“You’ll be able to put your earthbending skills to good use too,” Sid remarked.

“And you won’t have to pretend you’re a beginner all the time,” Jay said.

The ragtag group of companions rolled out their mats and made themselves comfortable, lying head to head and shoulder to shoulder on the sprawling floors of the main bedroom. The open windows let in the cool night air and the noise of the street below, but up here, everyone was comfortable…..for the most part. Lying shoulder to shoulder wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world, in fact it was downright awkward for some of them.

“You really think this is a good idea?” Nix asked.

“Of course,” Dick responded. “I mean really, Eugene’s probably one of the best earthbenders in the world. Why shouldn’t he join the group?”

“I meant lying head to head and shoulder to shoulder like we’re a bunch of canned fish,” Nix replied.

“Oh.”

Dick couldn’t deny that it was seriously awkward lying that close to someone else. Two inches away from Nixon’s face and he could already smell something in the vapors of his breath that he couldn’t put a name to.

“Come on Nix,” Dick told him. “I don’t think it’s really that bad now is it?”

“That bad?” Nix hissed under his breath. “The last thing I want to do is lie nut-to-butt with somebody who probably…..”

“Ok, ok I get it,” Dick interjected. “I get it.”

“First thing I’m gonna do is find us some trundle beds or something,” Nix told him. “And maybe a place with a better bedroom.”

“Yeah you do that,” Dick chuckled.

Nix groaned and rolled over, not wanting anything to do with the conversation any longer. “Let him brood,” Lieb told Dick. “I agree though that we could use some better beds instead of sleeping on the floor at night.”

“Well Lieb,” Dick said. “I guess we all want something out of this. If you could have anything else right now what would you have?”

“You kidding?” Joe questioned. “If I could….I’d find me a nice girl from the Southern Water tribe, with big, soft titties and a smile to die for. I’d build her a nice big igloo for all the potential little Liebgotts in the future. Yeah….yeah that’s what I’d want outta life.”

Dick wondered if he too would ever find a girl worth his time. The girls in the village hadn’t been much to look at, but they were probably better than some of the other ones he might have encountered in the bigger cities. He kept trying to picture what she might look like….but the thoughts completely eluded him. Dick sighed and blew out the night lamps, finally giving in to the tug and pull of sleep.

All was silent in the house that night as the band of benders slept on the hard floors of the upstairs rooms, hardly stirring as they let sleep take hold of them. Outside, the streets were eerily quiet. There were no clatterings of the cartwheels, no calls from the hawkers about goods for sale, no noises of ostrich horses…..nothing.

Ron blinked his eyes open and looked around the room at the others, all huddled together like a pack of koala-otters. Something was wrong, he just didn’t know what. But it was there…..it was all around them…..but no one could see it.

Ron peeled off the wool blanket and got to his feet, carefully tiptoeing his way to the window. He peered out at the darkened streets below, only a few lanterns and windows dimply lit by the lanterns within. He caught sight of one, maybe two dirty street urchins passing by, looking for others to beg or barter from, but nothing seriously out of the ordinary. Why was it that he felt that they were in danger?

_I’ve GOT to be going nuts…._ he thought.

That’s when he looked up and saw it.

A ball of bright orange streaked across the sky, high above the rooftops of Gaoling. It was only a glimpse as it soared right over the rooftops and disappeared from sight. Speirs had never been one to feel terror, but in that moment, he felt a surge of terror passing through him. Not since Ember Island had he been nervous or afraid of seeing orange streaks in the sky.

_I should probably wake the others…._ he thought, trying his best to remain calm. _I just hope it isn’t what I think it is….._

“Dick,” he hissed, tapping Dick on the shoulder. “Dick wake up!”

“Huh….what?”

“Dick, I think something’s wrong.”

They went to the window and another streak soon appeared in the sky, rocketing over the roof until a dull thump in the distance made their eyes go wide. “Get everyone up and get them the hell out of here,” Dick ordered. “We have to leave. Nix! Nix on your feet! Move it!”

“What?” Nix exclaimed as he woke abruptly from his sleep. “Dick what’s going on?”

“Get up!” Dick ordered. “We have to leave.”

“Everybody up!!” Speirs ordered. “Get to your feet! Move it! Move it!”

Everyone threw aside their blankets and jumped to their feet, startled by Speirs’s sudden shouting. They threw on their clothes and shoved what they could into their bags and packs. None of them knew why they had been awoken and thrown into a panic until they saw the orange comet streaks in the sky, whiffling over the rooftops and slamming into the walls that surrounded and protected Gaoling. Outside, people screamed in terror and animals bellowed in fright.

“Go! Go! Get the hell out of here!” Speirs ordered.

One by one they all bolted down the stairs, some jumping over the rails and clearing the steps before bolting out the doors. The streets were full of people, men, women and children screaming for help as the fireballs continued to pummel the city into oblivion.

“Hit the dirt!!” Nix shouted.

Sledge, Burgin, Lip, Luz, Perconte and Jay fell to their stomachs as Nix threw an earth shield over all of them, burying them safely in the cool dirt. The *BANG!* outside was deafening as it rattled their heads and eardrums. When the shield crumbled and dissipated Jay threw open a hole in the ground, opening it wide enough for the others to jump in.

“Everyone into the hole!” Jay ordered.

One by one they dove in, enclosed in the darkness as Jay quickly sealed up the hole above them. “It’s so dark down here, I can’t see a thing,” Luz remarked.

“Oh no what a nightmare,” Jay sarcastically responded.

“Sorry.”

“For fuck’s sake let me handle this,” Perconte said.

Perconte uncurled his fingers and a bright orb of flame flared in the palm of his hand, lighting up the tunnel below. Up above their heads, the ground rattled with the footsteps of hundreds of others running for cover. “Shit,” Nix hissed. “How the hell are we supposed to find the others?”

Jay and Sledge gave each other a knowing look. “Leave it to us,” Sledge told them. “Jay, ya’ll remember what to do?”

“I’ve never forgotten.”

The two of them closed their eyes and slammed their fists against the tunnel ceiling, their senses rooting their way into the dirt as they felt the vibrations above their heads. The others were close, but not close enough for them to open the hole and pull them in. Until they heard heavy footsteps barreling right over them.

“Let’er go Jay!!”

Jay pushed aside the roof of the tunnel and a wide hole opened up in the ground. Bull came crashing through the opening, shaking the ground as he landed and shook the dust from his short, curly blonde hair.

“Bull what happened?” Nix asked him. “Where are the others?”

“Most of’em escaped,” he replied. “Didn’t see where they went.”

“Where’s Dick?”

They didn’t have to wait long for their answer. Dick jumped through the hole and landed right on his feet, sealing up the hole behind him.

“Where are the others?” Nix asked.

“They hitched a ride with the airbenders,” Dick told him. “They’ll meet us when we get to a safer place.”

“Alright, let’s get out of here.”

They took off into the darkness, hurrying away from the city and away from what they had left behind. All they could hope was that the others were safe and as far away from the attack as possible.


	12. The Veil

Kolau Mountains

****

Tipper couldn’t see a thing as he guided Juji high over the mountain peaks, the early morning mists bright from the light of the morning sun. People had always claimed that the mountains were cool, but here it was almost sweltering. The wet smell of humidity and moisture was everywhere, but there was no question that the peaks would make an excellent hiding place.

He looked over his shoulder at the six sleeping figures all nestled in Juji’s saddle. Pik and Pak were comfortably curled up under Tatum’s arm while Shifty was the only one who had woken up. “Any sight of’em yet?” he asked.

“No,” Tipper replied. “I can’t even see down there. The fog’s too thick.”

Shifty made his way to the edge of the saddle, peering down into the canyon below full of ledges, escarpments and steep slopes. “Down there!” he called out, pointing to a clearing below.

Tipper signaled to the other airbenders and the pack of sky bison soared to the ground below. As soon as they were safely there, they were relieved to find Dick, Nix and the others all gathered around the remains of a smoldering campfire.

Tipper woke Tatum as soon as he could and slid from Juji’s saddle while the others caught up. “Everyone ok?” Nix asked him.

“Present and accounted for,” Tipper replied. “Buck counted heads and made sure everyone got out.”

“Good,” Nix said. “We’ve gotta focus on getting the hell out of here…..wherever this is.”

One look out and it was apparent that they were a long ways away from Gaoling. Tipper breathed in the chilly morning air, crisp and cool, reminding him of the days at the Air Temple. _There’s an idea…._ he thought. _Maybe if we head for one of the Air Temples we’ll find someone who can help us…..maybe some of our teachers escaped and went elsewhere…..maybe they’re still alive…._

“Maybe if we head to one of the Air Temples, there will be someone who can help us,” Tipper mused. “Maybe some of them escaped the raid.”

“I wouldn’t count on it Tip,” Nix told him. “I don’t think anybody survived those raids if they could do that.”

Tipper wasn’t so sure either. But it was worth the try anyways.

All of them dug into the food that had been prepared earlier that morning, the vegetarian dishes being set aside for the airbenders and everything else being left for the taking. Birds chirped as they flew overhead along the mountain ridges that stuck out of the ground like the back of some huge, hoary beast sleeping beneath the earth.

“We need to get out of here,” Dick said as he finished off the hot green tea in the clay mug. “I have a nasty feeling the Earth Kingdom isn’t safe anymore.”

“Can’t go to the Fire Nation if it’s occupied,” Speirs added.

“And we definitely can’t head for the South Pole,” Haldane put in.

“So where else then?”

“Probably one of the Air Temples is our best bet,” Buck answered. “Southern most likely. It’s the closest one.”

“Then we’ll head for there,” Dick said. “The sooner we leave the Earth Kingdom the better.”

The group rested along the ridge and made use of their day in any way they possibly could. Dick still couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling that overcame him. The need to get away from the Earth Kingdom was almost overwhelming as it gnawed at him like a hungry shirshu. _There’s got to be somewhere we can go….._ he thought.

The day wore on until night finally came and the group had fallen asleep, but Dick was still kept awake, plagued by the desire and the need to get away from there. But where could they go? Wherever they went was sure to be occupied by whoever it was that pursued them.

Dick turned his head and noticed that everyone was completely under the spell of sleep and probably would be well into the next morning. Quietly he arose from his sleeping bag and decided to wander in the hopes that he would be able to put his mind at rest. He left the small encampment behind and wandered into the sparse forest, passing through scraggly bushes and trees that were stunted and barren.

Dick wandered further into the woods, the vegetation growing thicker with every footfall that brought him further away from the small camp. Up above was the huge, milky white disk of the moon and the velvet black sky that had been flecked with stars. He kept walking, not wanting to go back and his thoughts still unclear. He kept plodding along, the dirt crunching beneath his feet as Dick wandered further and further away. But it wasn’t long until something unusual caught his eye.

_What in the hell…..?_

Standing on either side of him were a pair of ruined statues that had eroded with time and nature. Corners and edges had crumbled to nothing, a few pieces chipped away from the edges of the plinths and crusty, pale lichens and mosses crept their way up the stone. Whatever place this was had to have been old……as old as the mountains itself.

Out of pure curiosity, he ventured further with more ruins littering the grove, crumbling and weathered, the green and gold completely gone. The low clang of a bell in the distance followed him like a shadow as a clammy chill ran through his blood. Dick had sensed a presence in this strange place, something strong and powerful. A presence that felt faintly familiar too him……but unfamiliar.

Quietly he moved up the crumbling steps and into the dilapidated building. A musty odor clung to the back of his throat as he carefully opened the creaky door and went inside. The pitch black was almost suffocating until the pale light of the moon fell in through the spaces between the floorboards. Dick looked around but still could hardly see a thing.

“What is this place?” he said under his breath as he sat cross legged on the floor.

“I’ll tell you.”

Dick jumped at the sound of a voice in the darkness, looking around wildly for whoever it belonged to. “Show yourself!” he demanded.

Dick suddenly felt as though something had been pulled out of him, something that felt both cold and warm at the same time. The icy, blue-white mass that flew from his wide open mouth apparated in front of him, taking the form of a woman, strong and imposing, her eyes fixed on Dick in a deadlock that penetrated to the core of his soul.

“I’ve been waiting for you young Avatar,” the spirit said.

Dick was struck dumb by the sight of her. Even seated, she towered over him. “You……who are you?” he stammered.

“You should know,” the spirit of the woman said. “I hail from this land though yours and my upbringings were very different. Yet our destinies appear to be the same.”

Dick’s jaw hung open like a guppy, his eyes wide with amazement. “You’re Avatar Kyoshi aren’t you?”

“The only,” the spirit replied.

Dick felt a twinge of fear deep in his chest. Kyoshi was the most powerful of all the Avatars who had ever lived, feared and revered far and wide across the world. “I don’t understand,” Dick said. “Why did…..”

“You think you are unworthy?” Kyoshi questioned. “That you aren’t good enough? I was once exactly where you are. But you cannot run from it Richard. You must learn to embrace who you are. The fate of the world depends on it.”

“The fate of the world?”

“There is much that you know and much that you do not know,” Kyoshi answered. “There are those who walk the earth now that seek to ruin what the spirits have given.”

“An enemy that walks among us,” Dick replied.

“Yes,” Kyoshi said. “You know them Richard…..and you know them well. It is not a king, a queen or a warlord tyrant, but ordinary people who believe they are powerless.”

Dick tried to think of who this strange enemy might be but no one came to mind.

“Think back,” Kyoshi told him. “To your first night in Gaoling. Who was it that took those women and brought them before the onlookers? Who was it that cut their hair and shaved their heads?”

Dick hadn’t realized it until he thought back to the night in Gaoling, that very night he, John and Nix had all walked home together. _“Oh yes,” the guard said with a poisonous insult waiting on the tip of his tongue. “People who promise a life of equality and freedom for all when in reality, they’re just as prejudiced and hypocritical as the Upper Ring elite.”_

“You mean……it’s…..them?”

Kyoshi nodded.

Dick felt a pang of fear sparking to life inside him. “But the Fire Nation……the Southern Water Tribe……you mean to tell me that they’ve fallen?”

“They have.”

“But all of those people…..”

“Are counting on you to bring back what once was lost,” Kyoshi told him.

“But I can’t,” Dick insisted. “You tell me, what can a farmer kid from the Earth Kingdom do?”

Kyoshi flashed a half smile at him. “In my day,” she began. “Chin the conqueror threatened to throw the world out of balance. He expanded his armies all across the continent, raping and pillaging wherever he went and taking whatever he wanted. Who do you think it was that stopped him?”

“You.”

“Yes,” Kyoshi said. “The whole world is in danger, Richard. The Equalists are, in every way, like Chin. Time is running out young avatar. If you do not find a way to stop them…..no one will.”

Dick watched as Kyoshi’s spirit began to fade, blowing like a fine, blue dust into the wind. “Wait!” he cried out. “Wait! Kyoshi!”

“You must stop them Richard,” she said. “Find a way.”

“Kyoshi please wait!”

“Find a way.”

Her last words lingered like a dying breath as her spirit finally disappeared. Dick felt a crushing sadness as he was left alone in the dark. He buried his face in his hands, a quiet sob racking his shoulders as it escaped his throat. _I’m just a farmer’s son!!_ His head railed. _There’s nothing special about me at all…..I can’t stop these people….._

His dark thoughts were suddenly silenced as he glanced out at the early light of dawn. The light illuminated the old statue of Kyoshi at the front of the room, her face tinted a bright, rosy orange. A small piece of her still hung about, flaming with raw courage. “No,” Dick said under his breath., his eyes meeting those of the statue “I can’t stop these people alone.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hey fellow AO3 Readers,   
> I just want to say, thank you to everybody who has taken the time to read this fanfiction piece, it's a work that I've had in mind for a while now and I'm very happy to have found a place where I can write and post the work. Band of Brothers, The Pacific and Avatar the Last Airbender are my three absolute favorite series of all time and if anybody has any suggestions, ideas or any feedback, feel free to leave a comment in the comments section. Again, thank you to everybody who has read the work thus far, it's always appreciated.


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